Pakistan-sponsored terrorism has claimed the lives of about 14,000 civilians and 5,123 personnel of security forces in the state since 1990.
The scourge of terrorism has also extensively drained the coffers of the Central government, which has paid a whopping over Rs 7,500 crore to the state government under the security related expenditure (SRE) to combat militancy and rehabilitate the affected people in the past 17 years.
From the rehabilitation of Kashmiri migrants and surrendered militants to the creation of new battalions of the police for combating terrorism, violence and bloodshed have put extreme pressure on the financial resources of the country.
“As many as 13,978 civilians have been killed from 1990 to April 1, 2018, in terror attacks, while the number of security forces killed in counter-insurgency operations from 1990 to 2017 was 5,123. From 2011 to 2017, 34 Army personnel and 21 BSF jawans were killed in cross-border firing and ceasefire violations,” the Union Home Ministry of Affairs (MHA) shared the information in response to two separate RTI applications filed by Rohit Choudhary, a Jammu-based activist.
Read also: Kashmir – A Place of Stone Pelters
The year 2001 witnessed the most violent era, during which 3,552 people died, comprising 996 civilians, 536 security personnel and 2,020 terrorists. As many as 1,587 security force personnel were injured during this time. However, the maximum number of 1,341 civilians were killed in 1996, followed by 1995 when 1,031 civilians lost their lives in terror attacks.
According to an MHA report, the Centre has paid about Rs 5,227 crore to J&K under the SRE (Police) scheme from 2000 to 2017. Similarly, an amount of whopping Rs 2,400 crore has been provided to the state under the SRE (Relief and Rehabilitation) in 17 years.
“A massive jump has been witnessed in the SRE over the period as this amount was Rs 196.38 crore in 2000-01, which went up to Rs 1,185 crore in 2016-17,” the report said.
