Amit Shah, the Union Home Minister, assessed the security situation in Jammu and Kashmir on Saturday. Manoj Sinha, the lieutenant governor of Jammu and Kashmir, as well as key officials from the union territory’s administration, attended the meeting in Jammu. The home minister mentioned the decrease in terrorist-related occurrences from 417 in 2018 to 229 in 2021 during the high-level meeting. He also discussed the decline in the number of security forces personnel deaths from 91 in 2018 to 42 in the previous year, according to a statement from the home ministry.

Shah urged the security forces and the J&K Police to enhance collaboration for efficient counter-terror operations, emphasising proactive actions against terrorists and denying them safe haven or financial support.

The home minister also emphasised the importance of bolstering the union territory’s narcotics control department and taking actions to combat narco-terrorism.

“The security grid should be enhanced further to ensure zero cross-border infiltration and to completely eradicate terrorism in order to realise Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of a peaceful and prosperous Jammu and Kashmir,” the home minister said during the meeting.

The home minister’s visit to the Valley comes as intelligence reports indicate that improvised explosive devices are being smuggled across the Line of Control (LOC). IEDs and other weapons are being shipped in from across the border to be used in terror strikes in J&K and elsewhere in the country. Terrorist organisations such as Jaish-e-Mohammad and Lashkar-e-Toiba-backed The Resistance Front are active in the Kashmir Valley.

The security authorities have recently expressed concern about the targeted assassinations of panchayat officials in Kashmir. Last week, a sarpanch was shot and killed inside his home in Kulgam. In the last ten days, a village local body official has been killed three times.