Terror incidents in J&K decreased under Prime Minister Narendra Modi: Anurag Thakur

NEW DELHI: Underlining that the Union government has a ‘zero tolerance policy towards terrorism,’ Union minister for information and broadcasting Anurag Thakur on Monday said that an era of peace has started in the northeastern region under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi since 2014 with a sharp decline of 80 per cent in insurgency violence and a drop of 89 per cent in civilian deaths.

Interacting with the media at his official residence, Mr Thakur talked about the government’s efforts towards creating an atmosphere of peace in the Northeast.
“An era of peace has dawned in the northeastern region of India since 2014 when insurgency violence has seen a sharp decline of 80 per cent and civilian deaths have seen an 89 per cent drop. Added to this is the achievement of surrender by 6,000 militants since 2014,” Mr Thakur said.

On the government efforts to counter terrorism, Mr Thakur said that while the government has worked on the legal front by strengthening UAPA, it has also taken steps at the enforcement level by giving the National Investigation Agency (NIA) a truly federal structure by introducing the National Investigation Agency (Amendment) Act and the collective effect of these measures has weakened the ecosystem of terrorism.

The minister noted that PM Modi has always pressed the world to unite against terrorism.

“The government’s resolve against terror has been displayed time and again—from surgical strike to Balakot strike. The action by our armed forces has caused a significant drop in terrorist incidents in Jammu and Kashmir. Similarly, we have achieved a 94 per cent conviction rate in terror financing cases.”

Mr Thakur mentioned that the Union government is committed to go beyond armed action to counter terrorism and has worked to create an atmosphere of lasting peace across the Northeast region.

On the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), the minister said that its roll back has been only a matter of discussion all this while but the government rolled it back from a large part of Northeast, including the whole of Tripura and Meghalaya.

“It remains in force in only three districts of Arunachal Pradesh, 60 per cent of Assam is free of AFSPA, 15 police stations under six districts have been taken out of the category of disturbed area, and disturbed area notification has been removed from 15 police stations in seven districts,” he said.
Highlighting that rescuing Indian lives in distress is of paramount concern for the government, Mr Thakur said that 22,500 citizens were rescued under Operation Ganga in February-March 2022 and 670 Indian citizens were rescued from Afghanistan in Operation Devi Shakti.

“In one of the biggest successes of rescue operations, 1.83 crore citizens were brought back home during Covid-19 crisis under the Vande Bharat Mission in the year 2021-22. India rescued 654 people from Wuhan in China,” he said.