Jammu: The Jammu and Kashmir Government today (Nov 21) claimed that there has been a significant decline in the number of civilians and security personnel being killed in militancy-related incidents in the state since January 2003.

Notwithstanding the high profile incidents that get media attention for days together, there has been an almost 26 per cent decline in the deaths of civilians and security personnel as compared to last year, an official spokesman said in Jammu.

As against the 1416 deaths reported between January and November 2002, militants killed 1125 people during the corresponding period this year, he said.

The spokesman said that the decline in killing of security personnel has been estimated at 35.61 per cent this year. In 2002, 476 security personnel were killed, while their casualty figure stood at 351 this year, he added.

There has been also a decline of 17.35 per cent in the number of militancy-related incidents this year. Quoting figures, he said, incidents were less by 529 this year.

PTI