CRPF and BSF lost 175 its men which included 4 gazetted officers and 11 sub-ordinate officers in year 2016 in encounters with militants and ceasefire violations on the borders.

Year 2016 was bloodiest for the Army with the force suffering 8 fatal and 74 non-fatal casualties during the ceasefire violations across the line of control. Militants on the other hand suffered 150 casualties in the year 2016 from 108 that they suffered in the year 2015. This has been revealed by the Ministry of Home Affairs in an official document, a copy of which is with Kashmir Life.  According to Union Ministry of Home Affairs, CRPF suffered highest number of causalities in Jammu and Kashmir followed by BSF which has suffered on the borders during the last year.

A CRPF personnel using slingshot during protests - Photo by: Bilal Bahadur

The data reveals that CRPF lost 2 gazetted officers, 9 subordinate officers’ alongwith 71 officers of the other ranks in the year 2016, taking the toll to 82. The year 2015 had resulted in CRPF loosing 35 men including 1 officer, 1 sub-ordinate officer and 33 of the other ranks while fighting militancy in various parts of Jammu and Kashmir. CRPF suffered just 16 causalities in 2014 which included 6 gazetted officers, 4 sub-ordinate officers and 6 of the other ranks.

Year 2017 has not shown any improvement in the situation with CRPF loosing 3 gazetted officers and 9 officers of the other ranks within two months only. Hence, the CRPF has lost so far 145 men in the last four years, of which 82 casualties are of the year 2016 only and hence, the year can easily be described as the bloodiest of all. On the contrary, BSF which is stationed on the borders lost 166 of its men in the last four years.

93 men which included 2 gazetted officers, 2 sub-ordinates and 80 officers of the other ranks lost their lives in the year 2016 which witnessed heavy exchange of fire on the borders. Prior to the 2016 heavy exchange of fire on the borders, BSF had lost 2 gazetted officers in 2014, 5 sub-ordinate officers and 29 officers of other ranks during encounters with militants in Jammu and Kashmir as well as in skirmishes with Pakistani forces.

The situation improved slightly in the year 2015 with BSF losing 3 sub-ordinate officers and 25 officers of other ranks in 2015. The year 2017 has so far remained good for the BSF which has not so far suffered any causality. Thus, CRPF and BSF lost 303 men including 16 gazetted officers in the last four years (2013 to 2016) in Jammu and Kashmir while the Army suffered 15 fatal and 102 non-fatal casualties in the ceasefire violations across the line of control during the last three years.

Apart from casualties in encounters with the militants and the Pakistani forces on the borders, BSF lost 132 men including 1 officer and 27 sub-ordinate officers to various diseases in the last four years.   Similarly, ITBP lost 13 men , SSB lost 12, CISF lost 8 and Assam Rifles 2. This takes the total to 170. CRPF suffered highest on account of deaths due to various diseases. The force lost 1489 men in the last four years with J&K accounting for around 400 deaths due to diseases.

There were 322 militant violence incidents in Jammu and Kashmir in 2016 which is around 100 more than year 2012 when the number was 220. Against 121 infiltration attempts in the year 2015, there were around 364 attempts in the year 2016. This figure is alarming since it is clearly double the number of attempts militants made to infiltrate on this side of line of control in the year 2015. There were 228 ceasefire violations in the year 2016 against 152 for the year 2015.

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