Army action!

Militancy, decidedly, is waning in Jammu and Kashmir, but the state is not yet out of the woods.

Fed up by the alien gun culture, people of the valley are now providing a much-needed support to the government to root out the evil.

Between January and September, the casualties suffered by security forces and foreign militants increased. Civilian killings, cross firing incidents, explosions, arson and abductions, on the other hand, registered a decrease.

During this period, 130 security personnel lost their lives as against last year's 125. The number of foreign militants gunned down increased from 128 to 170.

The number of persons abducted has come down -- from 521 to 345, showing a 38.55 per cent decrease.

Militants caused 549 explosions in the first nine months last year. This year, however, these were limited to 334. The number of arson cases also came down from 361 to 199.

There were 750 cross border firing incidents. Security forces were attacked by militants at 915 places in the valley.

Seven hundred and thirteen civilians were killed by unidentified militants, and another 65 lost their lives in cross border firing in the nine months.

Security forces killed 905 local militants this year, as against 996 last year.

The Jammu and Kashmir police recruited 15,000 personnel.

UNI