Mumbai: Forty four Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel were killed in Jammu and Kashmir’s (J&K) Pulwama in a blast on February 14, 2019. This is the deadliest attack on security forces in J&K and second worst on the CRPF after 75 personnel were killed in Chhattisgarh’s Dantewada in 2010.

As many as 339 security forces died--a 94% increase from 47 in 2014 to 91 in 2018--in 1,708 terrorist attacks over the five years ending 2018 in J&K, Hansraj Gangaram Ahir, minister of state in the ministry of home affairs informed the Lok Sabha (lower house of parliament) in his reply on February 5, 2019.

Terrorist incidents in J&K increased 177% over four years to 2018, from 222 to 614; 838 terrorists were killed over the last five years, a 134% increase from 110 in 2014 to 257 in 2018.

Source:Lok Sabha

The year 2018 witnessed the most terrorist incidents over the last five years, 80% increase over 2017.

More than 70,000 terror attacks were reported in J&K over the 28 years to 2017; 22,143 terrorists were killed and 13,976 civilians and 5,123 soldiers died, IndiaSpend reported on June 19, 2018.

There were 78 buses carrying 2,500 CRPF personnel from Jammu to Srinagar when the convoy was attacked on February 14, 2019, ANI reported. The Jaish-e-Mohammad, a Pakistan based terrorist organisation, claimed responsibility.

(Mallapur is a senior policy analyst with IndiaSpend.)

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Chaitanya Mallapur

    Chaitanya has a masters degree in politics from the University of Mumbai and a bachelor's degree in computer science. His areas of interest are foreign policy and security studies. He has also worked with ET NOW, a business news channel, as an assistant producer in the digital team.