TERRORISTS CHANGE TACTICS, LEADING TO FATALITIES IN FORCES

India lost at least 337 security personnel since 2018 in terror strikes.

- ABHINANDAN MISHRA

India has lost at least 337 security personnel since 2018 in terror strikes that have happened in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir. Those who were killed were with the Indian Army, the paramilitary forces and the state police. This means that every year, 56 security personnel lost their lives to terrorists in the UT in the last six years.
The numbers include: 29 deaths in 2023; 32 in 2022; 42 in 2021; 63 in 2020; 80 in 2019; and 91 in 2018. While the number of fatalities has shown a decreasing trend, yet the fact that one security personnel is losing his life in terror attacks every 12 days in Jammu and Kashmir has come as a concern for the government.

On Thursday, four soldiers were killed in an ambush setup in Rajouri district, ostensibly by the People’s Anti-Fascist Front (PAFF), which is seen as an offshoot of the terrorist group Jaish-e-Mohammad. PAFF and other similar organisations like The Resistance Front (TRF) have come into existence in the last few years in view of the scrutiny that Pakistan was facing from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) for giving space to Lashkar-e-Tayyaba and Jaish-e-Mohammad.
Earlier in November, five soldiers, including two captains, lost their lives in Rajouri. In September, four security personnel lost their lives in a terror ambush at Kokernag, Anantnag in south Kashmir.