Srinagar (Jammu and Kashmir): As many as 23 militants, including a top commander of Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), were killed in anti-militancy operations by security forces in Jammu and Kashmir in April so far, officials said on Saturday.
Eleven security force personnel were also killed during gunfights with the militants in the union territory, they said.
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The suspected militants also killed four civilians during the first three weeks of this month while three civilians became the prey of cross border shelling, the officials said.
Giving details, a senior official told that the slain militants included a top commander of JeM Sajad Nawab Dar who was killed in Sopore town in Baramulla district on April 9.
Of the 50 militants killed so far this year, most of them were gunned down in this month only, he said.
"We gunned down 23 militants in 24 days and it is really a big success. Besides, a large number of their sympathisers have also been apprehended," the official said, adding that the anti-militancy operations are not fully resumed owing to the COVID-19 outbreak in the country and there are apprehensions that militants operating here might be infected with the disease.
Recently, Director General of Jammu and Kashmir Police Dilbag Singh too had claimed, "Pakistan is pushing militants infected with COVID-19 into Kashmir to spread the disease among the people of the valley."
"Till now, Pakistan had been supporting terrorists and now it is exporting coronavirus patients to infect people of Kashmir. This is something on which there is a need to take precaution," Dilbag Singh said on April 22.
The official further said that besides militants and civilians, 11 personnel from Army, J&K Police, CRPF lost their lives while fighting "Pakistan sponsored militancy in Kashmir".
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Compared to the same period the previous year, this April's militancy graph has slightly increased.
During the first three weeks of April, last year, 20 militants, nine security forces and six civilians were killed in gunfights and violence along the Line Of Control (LoC). According to police, as many as 160 militants were killed and 102 arrested in Jammu and Kashmir in 2019.
