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663 militants killed in Kashmir since January

As many as 663 extremists, including 170 foreign nationals, have been killed and a large cache of arms, ammunition and explosives recovered in encounters, raids and search operations in militancy-hit Jammu & Kashmir state in the first six months of 2000, an official spokesman said on Sunday.

In the same period, 132 security force personnel and 361 civilians were also killed.

This year, more foreign terrorists have been killed than last year. Last year, 108 foreign militants were killed in the first six months.

Giving details of the trends of the militancy, the spokesman said the security forces too have suffered higher casualties this year, mainly because of their strategy of seeking the militants out in intensified operations.

On the other hand, civilian killings at the hands of the militants have fallen. Last year, as many as 403 civilians were killed in the first six months. The number of civilian casualties has been showing a decline since 1996.

There has, however, been a sharp increase in the killings of civilians in explosions and grenade attacks, which the militants are increasingly resorting to, in order to avoid direct confrontation with the security forces.

As many as 72 civilians have lost their lives and 247 have been injured in such incidents this year as against 32 killed and 267 injured in the corresponding period last year. This year has witnessed 241 such explosions against 155 in the first six months last year.

A large cache of arms, ammunition and explosives have also been recovered so far by the security forces, including 647 Kalashnikov assault rifles, 192 pistols, 125 rocket boosters, 2,264 grenades, 1,271 explosives, 505 kilos of RDX and 373 improvised explosive devices.

UNI

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