In Jammu and Kashmir (J&K), the new year dawned in the backdrop of a terror strike in Rajouri-Poonch districts at Dera ki Gali (DKG), where four soldiers were killed in an ambush. In its aftermath, three civilians were alleged to have been killed by security forces. The Director General of Police, J&K, in his media briefing on the year’s round up, touched upon the encouraging numbers of terrorists killed, and how the things in the Union Territory (UT) were looking up. At around the same time, there was a media report, giving the nuances related to the number of terrorists killed by a paramilitary force in 2023, which was lower than the previous year, and, hence, a cause of concern. The Union Home Minister too, while reviewing the security situation in the UT, exhorted the security forces to destroy the terror infrastructure. This, in all probability, implied maximising the neutralisation of terror cadres.
Debatable obsession, misplaced focus
While it cannot be denied that neutralising terrorists is one of the most crucial objectives of the security operations, it ought not become the overriding factor, especially in the present context of lower terror indices. In this backdrop, an obsession with the numbers of terrorists killed may be debatable vis-à-vis its effect in the mid and long term.
