New Delhi: The Pulwama attack, which claimed at least 40 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) jawans’ lives, is the biggest terror attack in India in the past five years. The attack was targeted at a CRPF convey of nearly 70 vehicles. 

However, what is most worrying for the security agencies is the increasing number of terror attacks in Jammu and Kashmir. To be precise the number of attacks has tripled in a span of five years. 

According to government data, as many as 1,708 terrorist incidents took place in the past five years, i.e. from 2014 to 2019. Last year, 614 cases were reported, which was almost three times of 222 cases in 2014.

The rising trend was not only limited to terror attacks but also observed in the number of militants who were neutralised in the past five years. 

Security agencies in the Valley gunned down 257 terrorists in 2018. This number was 213, 150, 108 and 110 in the year 2017, 2016, 2015 and 2014 respectively.  

In these incidents, 138 civilians and 339 personnel of the security forces lost their lives.

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During this period, six terror incidents were reported from other parts of the country. While at least 11 civilians and security personnel lost their lives, seven terrorists were neutralised.

The home ministry data also showed that close to 400 terrorists had infiltrated in Kashmir in the past three years. A maximum of 36 terrorists entered the state in the month of June 2018. However, these numbers declined during the winters.

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However, the security forces have got major success in north-eastern border areas as the number of incidents relating to insurgency there witnessed a sharp decline. 

In 2018, 252 cases of insurgencies were reported, which was as high as 824 cases in 2014. The number of civilians died in such combat also came down to 23 in 2018, compared to 212 deaths in 2014.

The government data also indicate that cases of left extremism have also gone slightly down, but the country continues to lose their soldiers in combats against left-wing extremists. Indian security forces lost 354 soldiers the in past five years but also managed to kill 735 extremists.