Jaitley: Terrorists in J&K on the run now
Terrorists under pressure due to note ban: Jaitley
Terrorists in the Kashmir Valley are now on the run and they cannot continue to terrorise the people for decades, defence minister Arun Jaitley said on Sunday, maintaining that the government’s priority was to clean up the Kashmir Valley of armed militants.
He said the terrorists in Kashmir were “now under great pressure” and the financial crunch caused by demonetisation and the action taken by National Investigation Agency on illegal foreign fundings have checked illegal activities in Jammu and Kashmir in large scale.
Mr Jaitley, however refrained from making any comment on the standoff between India and China in the Dokalam area near the Bhutan trijunction, just saying “let us have full faith on our security forces”.
Jaitley said the country faced two serious threats — one with respect to Jammu and Kashmir with maximum incidents happening from across the border, and second being the problem of Left-Wing Extremism in central parts of the country.
Jaitley said the forces were dominating the border with the help of technological tools. “After surgical strikes in September last year, our forces are liquidating militants,” he said.
He said the money received by terrorists and other such groups has been squeezed postdemonetisation and there has been the effect of the actions taken by the NIA against foreign funding allegedly used for subversive activities.
“Whenever there was an encounter (earlier), hundreds and thousands would come out to throw stones. Many a times, terrorists would escape under the protection of stone throwers. This is now becoming a history. “Those who were coming in hundred and thousands, today their number is limited to 20, 30 and 50. For the first time, they have started looting banks,” he said. Jaitley said the terrorists are under tremendous pressure. “They are on the run. Their number is also declining,” he said.