Union Minister of Information and Broadcasting, Anurag Thakur said that the administration has taken significant steps against terrorism at a press conference on Monday.
Thakur in the press conference said, “I can say that an era of peace has come to northeast India.”
Deaths among civilians decreased by 89 percent after 2014 and insurgency in the trouble-torn region witnessed a drop of 80 percent. There is zero tolerance for terrorism in the eyes of the government and has been since 2014, he said.
Additionally, he said that Jammu and Kashmir had seen a 168 percent decrease in terrorism along with 94 percent conviction rate in terror finance.
He asserted that the Modi administration's policy is to break the back of terrorism. We have done all possible to end terrorism in India. Both our military action in Balakot in 2019 and the surgical strikes in 2016 serve as vivid examples of this.
The North East has entered a period of tranquilly, according to the minister. Since 2014, extremist violence has decreased by 80 percent. Since 2014, 6,000 militants have laid down their arms as per the minister.
“After 2015, left wing extremism incidents have also dropped 265 percent,” said Thakur while listing out several peace accords by the government in northeast India, “What could not be done in the past 75 years in the northeast was done by the Modi government in the past few years.”
We have withdrawn AFSPA (Armed Forces Special Powers Act) from the majority of the North East, he added. AFSPA was completely eliminated from Tripura and Meghalaya, while it remained only in three districts of Meghalaya, while in Assam as well, it has been taken back from more than 60 percent areas. AFSPA cover and police presence has been reduced from Nagaland and Manipur as well over the past few years, said the minister.
