In a tweet on June 22, 2018, Union Justice and Law Minister, Ravi Shankar Prasad, put out statistics on the number of terrorists killed in Jammu and Kashmir, stating the ‘fact’ that there has been an increase since the BJP-led NDA government came into power in 2014. In a minute-long video that was attached with the post, Prasad further said that this indicates the government’s successful efforts in tackling terrorism in the state.
Number of terrorists killed in Jammu & Kashmir: In 2012- 72 In 2013- 67 In 2014- 110 In 2015- 108 In 2016- 150 In 2017- 217 In 2018 (till May)- 75This is the story of efforts made during UPA and NDA regimes to fight terrorism in J&K. pic.twitter.com/qrVWiY6y49
— Ravi Shankar Prasad (@rsprasad) June 22, 2018
However, other twitter users accused him of leaving out data from the previous years where the government was run by the Congress-led UPA government.
Hon’ble Minister of Disinformation & Technology, such a lame attempt to cover up the failures of the PDP-BJP government with selective data. Here is the full ‘story of efforts made during UPA and NDA regimes to fight terrorism’. pic.twitter.com/domvxbfJyk
— Amitabh Dubey (@dubeyamitabh) June 23, 2018
The Logical Indian procured data on militant killings in Jammu and Kashmir from the Union Ministry Of Home Affair’s Annual Report 2017-18.
Courtesy: Annual Report 2017-2018 (Ministry Of Home Affairs)
National spokesperson of INC and former Union Minister of State, Manish Tewari, also took to Twitter on June 23, 2018 to put out what he considers to be the “correct data” from 1988 to 2018. In the tweet, he also mentioned he is sad to see that Prasad divided the fight against terrorism between UPA and NDA. Additionally, he had attached screenshots of the data, which has been taken from South Asia Terrorism Portal, a website with information on terrorism-related issues.
Data put out by @rsprasad yesterday Number of terrorists killed in Jammu & Kashmir: In 2012- 72 In 2013- 67 In 2014- 110 In 2015- 108 In 2016- 150 In 2017- 217 In 2018 (till May)- 75CORRECT DATA 1988-2018 FOR J&K BELOW. SAD THAT HE DIVIDED FIGHT AGAINST TERROR BTW UPA&NDA pic.twitter.com/yxG75po3wI
— Manish Tewari (@ManishTewari) June 23, 2018
Data By South Asia Terrorism Portal
The website, which uses media reports as a source of information, provides data on militant killings in the state of Jammu & Kashmir between the years 1988 and 2018. Moreover, the numbers put out by the website, appear to be different than what was given by Prasad.
Courtesy: South Asia Terrorism Portal
Courtesy: South Asia Terrorism Portal
More SFs Killed
However, these numbers also suggest one thing, that the number of security personnel killed in terror related incidents have gone up in the years 2016 and 2017. Going by official government records it has been 82 in 2016 and 80 in 2017 respectively. 2016’s figure has been the highest in the last eight years when in 2009, the numbers were 78. Till the year 2015, the figures remained lower than 78.
Courtesy: Annual Report 2013-2014 (Ministry Of Home Affairs) Courtesy: Annual Report 2015-2016 (Ministry Of Home Affairs) The Logical Indian Take
If the government tries to present counter-terrorism operations as a competition with the previous regime, it maligns the bravery and the memory of those Indians, security personnel or civilians, who lost their lives during these incidents. This notion of using the nation’s military as a propoganda tool is inherently wrong. Obviously, sustained efforts are needed to significantly reduce the number of terror related incidents and the loss of lives in the state.
