KL Desk
SRINAGAR
“There are around 200 militants operating in Jammu and Kashmir and the security forces are at high alert to face them”.
This was stated by Union Minister of State for Home Kiran Rijiju in reply to a question in Lok Sabha on Tuesday.
“There were approximately 6,800 militants of different ‘tanzeems’ active during 1996 in J&K, however, the number has got reduced to 240 and 199 in 2013 and 2014 (January) respectively,” Rijiju said in reply to a written question.
The Minister said there is no proposal to withdraw the security forces from Jammu and Kashmir and deployment of security forces at any point of time is decided on basis of the review of the threat perception at the highest operational levels in the Central and state governments.
Rijiju said a proposal has been received from Jammu and Kashmir government for increasing the honorarium of Special Police Officers (SPOs) from Rs 3,000 to Rs 5,000 per month which is under examination.