New Delhi:
Terror attacks and ceasefire violations have relatively declined in Jammu and Kashmir afterarmy carried out surgical strikes across Line of Control (LoC)in September last year, Parliament was informed on Wednesday.
During the question hour, which saw a heated debatebetween opposition and treasury benches, Minister of State forHome Hansraj Gangaram Ahir said the ceasefire violations byPakistan have come down post-surgical strikes.
"There were 228 ceasefire violations at the LoC in 2016and 221 at the IB (International Border). However, tillFebruary 2017, there have only been 22 ceasefire violationstill now and six on the IB," he said said while replying tosupplementaries in the Rajya Sabha.
Leader of Opposition and senior Congress leader GhulamNabi Azad criticised the minister for not giving a properreply and said he had never "witnessed butchering" of such animportant issue during his 36 years of his Parliamentarycareer.
However, Home Minister Rajnath Singh came to the rescueof his junior minister and rejected the charges of Azad sayingthat appropriate answer had been given to the question.
He read out a statement which was similar to a writtenreply given by Ahir in Lok Sabha today which showed thatterror attacks in Jammu and Kashmir have come down after thesurgical strikes were carried out by the Indian Army on terrorlaunch pads in Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir.
In his reply, Ahir said that during the three monthsprior to the September 29 surgical strikes, there were 110terror attacks in Jammu and Kashmir in which 34 securitypersonnel and seven civilians were killed.
But during three months, post-surgical strikes, therewere 87 terror incidents in the state in which 19 securitypersonnel and six civilians were killed, he said.
The surgical strikes were carried out by the Army afterthe terror attack at Uri in North Kashmir on September 18 lastyear in which 19 soldiers were killed.
The government had said that during the strikes, manyterror launch pads were destroyed and several militants killedin Pakistan occupied Kashmir.
"The government has continuously encouraged to mainstreamthe youth, including providing employment opportunities towean them away from militancy," Ahir said.
