Jammu: Jammu and Kashmir has witnessed a 71 per cent drop in militancy so far in the five years of the National Conference-led government in the state, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said Monday.
“Militancy has declined by 71 per cent in the last five years… No collateral damage has occurred in the anti- militancy operations by security forces,” Omar told the Legislative Council here.
Responding to discussions on the Motion of Thanks for the governor for his address to the Joint Session of  Legislature, Omar claimed there has been a significant improvement in the security scenario while human rights violations have come down to almost zero.
Lauding security forces for showing “restraint in challenging situations,”  Omar referred to the militant attacks on an Army convoy and on the BSF at Bemina and said that these incidents were examples of troops not resorting to indiscriminate firing to save the lives of innocent civilians.

‘Jails not filled with innocent people’
Omar also gave full credit to the people of JK for the “gradual return of peace in the state” and slammed some parties for trying to send out an impression that “government has filled jails with innocent people.”
“The fact is that only 2396 persons mostly criminals are in prisons and out of these 35 have been arrested under Public Safety Act (PSA),” Omar said.
He said that sustained efforts by the government in the above regard, aided by the wholehearted support and commitment of the people, had yielded fruit.”Conspiracies were hatched to disturb the law and order situation in the state and create hurdles in the delivery of governance, but the people of JK defeated those behind such attempts,” he said.

‘PDP projecting me as main problem in Kashmir’
Criticizing the opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP) for “planting wrong notions in the minds of people”, Omar said they project him as the main problem in Kashmir.“Some of my friends go to Delhi and project me as a main problem there. They say 80 per cent of problem in Kashmir is Omar Abdullah. Remove Omar Abdullah and everything will be fine,” Omar said. He said there are people in the pro-India camp who create chaos and confusion in the minds of people to get their vested interests fulfilled. “In our rows there are people who act as petrol to light the flames during the communal tensions (Kishtwar, Budgam, Zanskar). They pit Shias against Sunnis, Hindus against Muslims and Buddhist against Muslims. But with the cooperation of people peace has always prevailed in the state,” he said during his address in the Legislative Council.

KR Desk