SRINAGAR – Occupied Jammu and Kashmir to witness 2018 as the bloodiest yearas per the claims of the former top coup in Kashmir.

Former Jammu and Kashmir Director General of Police Kuldeep Khoda said thekilling of over 200 militants in the Valley would not “restore normalcy” inthe state and predicted that the year would see more bloodshed than 2017.Khoda, who was J&K’s top cop between 2007 and 2012, was in New Delhi toattend a security conclave, Indian Express has reported.

“The year 2018 is bound to be worse than 2017, where casualty of securityforces is likely to cross 100,” he told *The Indian Express*. Eighty-twosecurity personnel were killed in 2016, while 80 died in 2017.ADVERTISEMENT

“The killing of over 200 militants by security forces last year is a clearindication that there are more militants in the valley than previousyears,” he said, while blaming “politicisation of events for vote bankpolitics and polarisation” as primarily responsible for escalation ofviolence in the valley.

“As the DGP, I had sent a report to the Ministry of Home Affairs, statingthat out of 22 districts in J&K, 19 were without any presence ofmilitants…The only areas which had presence of militants then were Pulwama,Kupwara and upper Ganderbal,” he said.

The former DGP also defended the use of pellets guns, claiming it to be themost-effective non-lethal weapon. “In 2010 agitation, we used pellet guns,but there was no outcry. It is possible that the boys (CRPF), who are usingthese pellets guns now, have not been trained or instructed properly tocause minimum damage,” he said.

A 1974-batch IPS officer from the Jammu and Kashmir cadre, Khoda wasappointed the chief vigilance commissioner (CVC) of Jammu and Kashmir in2013. During his stint as CVC, Khoda said: “I highlighted rampantcorruption, nepotism, favoritism in the government. There are certainoffices and certain desk where corruption breeds — like (the desks dealingwith) scholarship for students, subsidies for various schemes, thereserved/backward area certificate, the revenue documents. We suggested thegovernment to install CCTVs at these desks. If governance is good, lot ofirritants mind will be taken care of.”ADVERTISEMENT

Khoda also criticised the government for not being serious about stoppingterror funding in the Valley. “In 2010, the Centre set up a committeeheaded by the Director Intelligence Bureau (IB) and members from otheragencies, including RAW and Jammu and Kashmir police, but the committeenever met to discuss terror funding,” he said.