With the latest incident, 89 Indian army personnel, including several officers, have been ‘killed in action’ in Jammu and Kashmir this year.
The dramatic increase in the number of casualties among security force personnel in Kashmir is deeply worrying for many in the security establishment, the Hindu newspaper reported.
On Tuesday, at least seven army personnel were killed and many, including BSF personnel, were injured in two attacks.
Of the 89 killed this year, 27 were lost in the alleged surgical strikes carried out on September 29. The attrition rate among the Indian Army has been growing tremendously with respect to the freedom fighters killed.
Informed sources say that the high attrition rate particularly of officers in the Army, the world’s highest, can be detrimental in war. “If the company commanders and the second-in-commands get killed in the first wave, there will be no one else to lead or fight during an actual war,” one source said.
Experts say that a low-risk option is being employed by the adversary, and stress the need to revisit practices to minimise casualties.
“This time, India’s resolve to hit back in the form of surgical strikes has put the other side on the defensive. For them this is a low-cost, high-visibility option,” Lt. Gen. S.L. Narasimhan, a former Infantry Officer, told The Hindu.
According to data, in the new wave of attacks, freedom fighters are able to inflict many more casualties on security forces with each attack than in the past. Data show that while the total number of violent incidents in Kashmir has only gone up marginally from previous years, the number of security personnel killed or injured has dramatically risen.
Until Tuesday evening, at least 89 security force personnel had been killed in Kashmir, while almost 200 have been injured this year alone.
With another month to go, this year’s casualty figures among security forces could end up being the highest in a decade.
In 2007, security forces lost 122 of its men. The numbers dropped to 57 in 2008, and by 2012 the number of security forces killed in terrorist attacks fell to 15. It then began to climb. In 2013, a total of 53 security personnel were killed.
A similar trend is visible in the number of security personnel injured in J&K.
“We have a very unsettled situation since 2014. The government needs to get its act together,” an Army officer posted in J&K said.
