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| Foreign mercenaries continue to pour in | | |
ET REPORTER
Jammu, July 28: In a new trend that is being described by security experts as dangerous, the foreign origin militants are these days coming in significant numbers to the Kashmir Valley even though the number of locals still continues to be higher.
This suggests that the local youth are no more taking to the guns and in view of the shortfall more foreign mercenaries are being pumped in.
According to defence reports some 680 to700 militants are active in Kashmir at present as compared to 1500 in the year 2000. They said of these, a staggering 412 are locals and 265 are believed to be foreigners.
The sources said the Hizbul Mujahideen was the strongest of the militants groups active in the Kashmir valley with about 215-220 cadres while the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Toiba has 162 ultras.
They said the number of militants have come down to half from 2000 because several top commanders and other cadres have been eliminated by the security forces in the past few years.
The sources said there have been 18 infiltration bids from across the border and about 45 militants killed during the past six months.
As many as 1441 allegations of human rights violations were reported during the past one year. Out of these, as many as 1352 were found to be false, the sources added.
They said the presence of militants was 42 per cent higher in twin border districts of Baramulla and Kupwara than other parts of the troubled state.
It used to be 80 per cent some years ago, the sources added.
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