Jammu, Jan 5: Jammu and Kashmir witnessed record lowest number of militant violence during the tenure of Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, who completed his one year in office Tuesday.
 No suicide attack took place for the second consecutive year and the state recorded 386 killings - 79 civilians and 72 securitymen - in 2009, lowest in the past two decades, according to official data released by the state home department.
 The data shows that 2009 saw the least number of 79 civilian deaths in militant violence in the state in the past 20 years as also lowest number of 72 security personnel, including 11 policemen, 47 security men, 13 Special police officers (SPOs) and a Village Defence Committee (VDC) member were killed in 2009.
 “During 2009, the civilian killings have gone down by over 42 per cent as compared to 2008 while during this year, the militancy related incidents dropped by over 35 per cent,” Director General of Police Kuldeep Khoda told PTI.
 In 2008, there were a total of 708 militancy-related incidents, killing of 147 civilians and 85 security men, including 65 security force personnel and 10 policemen.
 The figures reveal that 1995 saw the highest number of 5,946 militancy-related incidents in which 3,035 people, including 1,202 civilians, 237 securitymen and 1,596 militants were killed.
 Besides the December 30 militant attack in Sopore in which four CRPF personnel were killed, the year did not saw any major suicide attack on any security establishment or VVIP area.
 As many as 235 militants were killed by the police and security forces, maintaining a pressure on militants, who made frantic calls to their militant leadership to infiltrate more militants and send weapons and money, Khoda said.
 As per the police figures, 342 infiltration attempts were made by the militants from across the border in 2008, while 2007 and 2006 reported 535 and 573 such attempts respectively along LoC and International Border in Jammu and Kashmir.
 Khoda said measures have been taken by security forces to foil these bids and it is an area of concern at a time when violence has gone down in the state.

Lastupdate on : Tue, 5 Jan 2010 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Tue, 5 Jan 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Wed, 6 Jan 2010 00:00:00 IST