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Death In The Valley
George Iype in New Delhi
The Union government is increasingly worried about the alarming number of casualties among the army personnel fighting terrorism in the Kashmir valley.
At present, nearly 300,000 military and paramilitary personnel are engaged in the battle against Pakistan-sponsored terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir.
Latest defence ministry records indicate that 1,138 army personnel have been killed, and 2,607 wounded during the counter-insurgency operations in the state from 1989.
Records say 90 per cent of those killed are in the 20 to 25 age group. And one out of every 17 casualties is an officer -- a rather alarming rate, caused partly by the fact that in the valley, each officer commands less than 100 jawans.
The figures are, defence ministry officials concede, on the very high side for peace time operations. "Counter-insurgency is a low-intensity conflict, and therefore it does not warrant so many casualties. The figures from the Kashmir valley are worrying," a ministry official told Rediff On The NeT.
The numbers killed in Kashmir is second only to the casualties recorded during India's peace-keeping mission against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in Sri Lanka, in course of which nearly 2,000 IPKF personnel lost their lives.
Faced with the heavy toll mounting cost of security set up have forced the home ministry to look for ways and means to reduce the expenditure involved in funding counter-insurgency operations in the region.
The ministry recently rejected the Farooq Abdullah government's request for a hike in central funds to the tune of Rs 4.5 billion. A senior official said the budget for carrying out anti-insurgency operations in Jammu and Kashmir has been stretched beyond all reasonable limits.
Security operations in the state over the past two years have cost the exchequer over Rs 60 billion -- which figure does not take into account the number of economic packages and loan waivers with which the government has tried to keep the people in the state happy.
The Union government has, meanwhile, asked the Abdullah government to return 700 bulletproof cars which had been given on loan to the state for the conduct of the general and assembly elections. Interestingly, not only has Dr Abdullah refused, but he is understood to have asked for a further 250 bulletproof cares for bureaucrats and private individuals deemed to be under threat from the militants.
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