Conflict

Life shelf of militants in the valley has dwindled to months: Jaitley

‘They are on the run, under tremendous pressure after demonetization, NIA raids’

New Delhi: Defence Minister Arun Jaitley on Sunday said that militants in the Kashmir Valley are on the run and their shelf life has decreased to months, reported the Press Trust of India.

“Today no big militant can dream of committing terror acts and continue to terrorise the Valley for decades, but today their life shelf has dwindled to a few months. I will specifically praise the Jammu & Kashmir police for working hard (towards eliminating terrorists),” he said.

Jaitley added that militants were under great pressure after being hit by demonetization and action taken by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) against ‘foreign funding of terror’.

While speaking about the standoff between India and China in Doklam near the Bhutan tri-juction, the Defence Minister said, “Let us have full faith in our security forces.”

He also maintained that Pakistan considered Kashmir as their unfinished agenda and never accepted Kashmir as the integral part of India.

“Since independence, Pakistan has never agreed that Kashmir is an integral part of India. That has been their unfinished agenda. They tried conventional war. But India’s capability was way ahead in the conventional war. The wars of 1965, 1971 and Kargil clearly proved this,” he said.

He further added that apart from the serious threat in Jammu and Kashmir, the second big problem which the country faces is the Left-Wing extremism in the central parts.

Jaitley also added that after the funding allegedly used for subversive activities was squeezed, militants have started looting banks.

“Whenever there was an encounter (earlier), hundreds and thousands would come out to throw stones. Many a times, terrorists would escape under the protection of stone throwers. This is now becoming a history,” he said.

The Defence Minister added, “Those who were coming in hundred and thousands, today their number is limited to 20, 30 and 50. For the first time in the history, we have been they have started looting banks.”

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