Sending a strong message, Union Home Minister Amit Shah has said that no family member of any terrorist or close relatives of stone pelters will get government jobs in Jammu and Kashmir.
Mr. Shah also said that the Narendra Modi government has not only tackled terrorists but has also eliminated the terrorist ecosystem, resulting in a drastic drop in terrorist incidents in the country.
“In Kashmir, we have taken a decision that if someone joins a terrorist organisation, his family members will not get any government job,” he told PTI in an interview over the weekend.
Similarly, Shah said, if someone takes to stone pelting, his family members will also not get a government job.
He said some human rights activists appealed to the Supreme Court against the decision, but in the end, the government prevailed.
However, the Home Minister said the government will make an exception in case someone from a family comes forward and informs authorities that their close relative has joined a terrorist group.
Those families will receive relief, he said.
Earlier, funeral processions used to be held in Kashmir after a terrorist was killed, Shah said.
“We have stopped this trend. We have ensured that the terrorist is buried with all religious formalities, but in an isolated place,” he said.
The Interior Minister said that when a terrorist is surrounded by security forces, he is first given the opportunity to surrender.
“We are calling his family members, like his mother or wife, and asking them to appeal to the terrorist to surrender. If he does not listen to us, he will die,” Shah said.
The Home Minister said that terrorist incidents have decreased significantly in Jammu and Kashmir as the government has not only targeted terrorists but also eliminated the terrorist ecosystem.
“Through the NIA (National Investigation Agency), we have cracked down on terror financing and we have put an end to it. We have taken a very strong stance on this,” he said.
In the case of the banned Popular Front of India (PFI), Mr Shah said the government has imposed a ban on publication and dissemination of terrorist ideology by it.
The Kerala-based radical Muslim group PFI was banned under the provisions of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UJOBsNewsA) by the Centre in September 2022 for its alleged links with terrorist activities.
In the case of Amritpal Singh, an alleged pro-Khalistani separatist, “we have put him in jail under the NSA (National Security Act),” he said.
Mr. Singh, the chief of the radical Sikh separatist group ‘Waris Punjab De’, was arrested in April 2023 in Punjab under strict NSA and later shifted to Assam where he is lodged in Dibrugarh Jail.
He recently filed nomination papers from jail to contest the Lok Sabha elections from the Khadoor Sahib seat in Punjab.
According to Union Home Ministry data, there were 228 terrorist-initiated incidents in Jammu and Kashmir in 2018 and the number will come down to around 50 by 2023.
In 2018, there were 189 clashes between security forces and terrorists, and in 2023, that number dropped to about 40.
In 2018, 55 civilians were killed in various terrorist incidents. By 2023, the number had dropped to around five.
In 2018, a total of 91 security personnel were killed due to terrorist violence in Jammu and Kashmir, and the number will come down to around 15 by 2023.
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