It's not even three months of this year and body count of soldiers has been steadily rising in Jammu and Kashmir to make it one one of the most violent periods in recent times.
The Army alone has lost 10 men, five of them before the tragic car bombing in Pulwama killing 40 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) troopers on February 14. Since Pulwama, five more Army men and eight other security personnel have died.
Last year was one of the bloodiest for the security forces as around 100 of them were killed. The number has crossed 55 in the first two months of this year.
But the number of terrorists killed in operations is also rising. Till February 14, 28 terrorists were killed and another 16 have been eliminated after Pulwama.
Reflecting in the tough times and extremely tense situation is the stark rise in ceasefire violations on the Line of Control (LoC).
There were 267 ceasefire violations before February 14 and since then 228 of such breaches have been reported, signalling that the guns have been blazing across the border.
Comparisons are being drawn with 2018 which saw security forces scoring major successes against terrorists killing 260 of them, including some big names such as Lashkar-Taiba head Naveed Jatt. The number of kills in 2018 was the highest in eight years. The last major successful year was 2010 when 270 terrorists were killed.
2011 saw 119 killing, 2012 saw 84, 110 in 2014, 113 in 2015, 165 in 2016 and 218 in 2017.
The number of security forces killed in 2018 was 95 while 83 had died in 2017.
According to south Asia terrorism portal, 56 security personnel have died in Jammu and Kashmir this year and 44 terrorists have been killed.
--IANS
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