New Delhi: Union Minister Anurag Thakur Monday said that the action by the armed forces caused a significant 168 percent drop in terrorist incidents in Jammu and Kashmir while the government achieved a 94 percent conviction rate in terror financing cases.
A detailed statement issued to media here at his residence, Thakur said, “The policy focus of Government of India is ‘zero tolerance against terrorism.’”
On the efforts of the government to counter terrorism, he said that while the government worked on the legal front by strengthening UAPA, at the same time it also took steps at the enforcement level by giving National Investigation Agency (NIA) a truly federal structure by introducing NIA (Amendment) Act and the collective effect of these measures was the weakening of terror ecosystem.
“The government’s resolve against terror, time and again, has been displayed since the surgical strike at Balakot. The action by our armed forces has caused a significant 168 percent drop in terrorist incidents in J&K. Similarly, we have achieved a 94 percent conviction rate in terror financing cases,” Thakur said.
Highlighting that India raised its concerns at the highest global levels, he said that in international conferences and meetings, Prime Minister Narendra Modi always pressed the world to unite against terror.
“The 90th Interpol General Assembly witnessed a participation of over 2000 foreign delegates and culminated in the announcement of ‘Global Action Against Act of Terrorism,’” Thakur said.
Speaking at length about the efforts of the government towards creating an atmosphere of peace in the North East, he said, “An era of peace has dawned in the North Eastern region of India since 2014 with insurgency violence seeing a sharp decline of 80 percent and civilian deaths seeing an 89 percent drop. Adding to this is the achievement of surrender by 6000 militants since 2014.”
Thakur said that the efforts of the government to diminish capabilities of Left-Wing Extremists (LWE) caused a 265 percent drop in violent incidents.
“The government is committed to go beyond armed action to counter terrorism and has worked to create an atmosphere of lasting peace across the region. These peace treaties are a legacy of the achievements of the government,” he said.
Underlining this aspect, Thakur listed the peace agreements signed by the government including Bodo Accord in January 2020, Bru-Reang Agreement in January 2020, NLFT-Tripura Agreement in August 2019, Karbi Anglong Agreement in September 2021, and Assam-Meghalaya Inter-state Boundary Agreement in March 2022.
Speaking about the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), he said that AFSPA rollback had been a matter of discussion while but the government had rolled it back from a large part of North East including entire Tripura and Meghalaya.
“It remains in force in only three districts of Arunachal Pradesh, 60 percent of Assam is free of AFSPA, 15 police stations under 6 districts have been taken out of the category of Disturbed Area, and Disturbed Area notification has been removed from 15 police stations in 7 districts,” Thakur said.
He also delved on the rescue operations run by the government over the years. Highlighting that rescuing Indian lives in distress was of paramount concern for the government, he said that the country had been at the forefront of running rescue operations across the world.
Listing the achievements, Thakur said that 22,500 citizens were rescued under Operation Ganga in February-March 2022, 670 Indian citizens were rescued from Afghanistan in Operation Devi Shakti, and in one of the biggest successes of rescue operations, 1.83 crore citizens were brought back home during COVID19 crisis under the Vande Bharat Mission in 2021-22 while 654 people were rescued from Wuhan in China.
“Not just Indians, India has also offered a helping hand to foreign citizens under distress. In 2016, under Operation Sankat Mochan, 155 people including two Nepalese citizens were brought back from South Sudan. 5000 Indians were rescued from Nepal during Operation Maitree while 170 foreign nationals were also rescued from Nepal. During Operation Rahat 6710 people were rescued from Yemen including 1962 foreigners,” he said.
About what these efforts created for India in the world, he said, “India is increasingly being seen as a country that readily offers all assistance to other countries in their time of crisis and also as one that acts strongly against terrorism while a neighboring country is only seen as one sheltering terrorism and propounding values of violence.”