Amid reports that Pakistan is desperately trying to push Afghan returned terrorists on the Indian side of the Line of Control (LoC), the outgoing Director General of CRPF Kuldeep Singh on Thursday said that the number of foreign terrorists in Kashmir Valley has increased after the Taliban has taken over Afghanistan.
The CRPF DG, however, said that the overall strength of the active terrorists in the Kashmir Valley is below 200.
The DG CRPF further said that all the security forces operating in Kashmir are working in a coordinated manner and terrorist incidents have gone down post the abrogation of Article 370 from the erstwhile state in 2019.
As per records of the police, Jammu and Kashmir has witnessed more than 87 encounters so far in the year 2022. Security forces killed more than 148 terrorists during these encounters, and among them were more than 39 foreign terrorists, believed to be all Pakistani. Kashmir also witnessed the killings of 20 civilians this year. Security forces also lost 16 soldiers in various terror incidents.
About the new strategy of the terrorists to execute selective and targeted killings of the members of the minority community, unarmed cops, and migrant labourers, the CRPF DG said that it was a challenge but all the forces were effectively tackling it.
The officer, from the 1986 batch of the Indian Police Service (IPS) of West Bengal cadre, had taken charge as the CRPF DG last year in March. He will retire from service on Friday.
Two Pashto-speaking terrorists were killed in Jammu in April
On April 22 this year security forces eliminated two foreign terrorists in the Sunjwan area of Jammu city. Although the identities of the killed terrorists were not established, it was believed that either they were Afghan returnees or Afghan nationals because they were speaking Pashto during the interaction.
Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) Mukesh Singh, who is holding additional charge of IGP Jammu zone, while quoting one of the people arrested in connection with providing shelter to foreigners, had revealed that the killed terrorists were speaking Pashto. "Either they are from a village in Pakistan bordering Afghanistan or from Afghanistan itself", the ADGP had said at that time.
Arms abandoned by NATO forces were earlier recovered in Kashmir
In May this year security forces observed that terrorists used American armour-piercing bullets during a couple of encounters. These bullets were abandoned by NATO forces in Afghanistan.
These bullets were successful in piercing through the bulletproof jackets worn by the troops during encounters.
Reports said that some terrorists were also found using advanced night visions, which were made in Canada and this equipment was also part of the arms, and ammunition left by the NATO troops in Afghanistan.
The terror groups in the Kashmir Valley have reportedly managed some arms and ammunition left by the US army in Afghanistan. Recently a terror group released a video in which terrorists were brandishing American-made rifles and pistols.
