By News Agency of Kashmir,
Jammu : More than 20,000 civilians, 7,000 police personnel including SPO’s have been died in militant related incidents because of the cross border terrorism in the past two decades in the Jammu and Kashmir. The State police and security forces have also neutralized 20,000 terrorists in the State.
This was revealed by Chief Secretary of the state S S Kapur during the inaugural session of the week long Vertical Interaction Course (VIC) on “Tactical Preparedness for Counter Terrorism” at the Sher-I-Kashmir Police Academy (SKPA), Udhampur, today.
He said that terrorism and insurgency have threatened the very foundations of Indian democracy and we need to be extremely vigilant in meeting this challenge.
“New counter terrorism operations require more information, intelligence and technology rather than use of force and weaponry alone,” he suggested and added that an integrated approach involving social and economic developmental measures was required to keep the social fabric of society intact.
Kapur stressed for increasing the number of state police personnel and equipping them with modern technology to fight the terrorism effectively.
Terming the interaction course of great relevance in the present scenario, the Chief Secretary said that the programme would go a long way in sensitizing the participants about the growing menace of terrorism at national level and strategies required to be adopted in tackling it effectively.
Sponsored by the Bureau of Police Research and Development, New Delhi as many as 18 IPS and senior police and paramilitary officers from across the country are participating in the course.
Director, SKPA, Navin Agarwal, Deputy Commissioner, Udhampur, Ajay Khajuria, Senior Superintendent of Police, Udhampur, Surinder Gupta and Assistant Director, SKPA, Ravinder Singh (Course Director), were present on the inaugural session.
Director SKPA apprised that the week-long interaction course will focus on various issues concerning the several dimensions of terrorism, its changing ramifications, current and futuristic preparedness of police etc.