No Civilian Deaths From Terrorism In India In 3 Years – In Non-Border Areas

I came across some interesting stats the other day about terror attacks in India, and how they’ve changed since the previous government. Here’s a brief analysis of the whole thing.

Summary: While there have been bomb blasts in India under BJP rule, only one of those was in a major metro (Bangalore in December 2014). There have been terror incidents in non-conflict areas (outside J&K, North-East & Punjab), but civilian casualties have been much lower than during UPA.

Terror Attacks Statistics Under BJP & UPA Govt

Number of terror attacks (includes bomb blasts and shootings) in the eight most populous Indian cities (Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Pune) during the two governments: In the 10-year rule of the UPA, the number is 18. In the four-year rule of NDA, it is one (occurred in Bangalore in Dec 2014).

Below data is from South Asian Terrorism Portal, which compiles terrorism-related incidents from media reports. It shows average deaths per year of civilians, security forces & terrorists from UPA (10 years), UPA-II & BJP (till Sep 2018), and also total deaths from terror incidents in North-East, Maoist-related and J&K.

It should be noted that terror incidents came down during UPA-II, after Chidambaram took over from Shivraj Patil as Home Minister, following the Mumbai attacks in 2008.

Type of Deaths       UPA (10 years)      UPA-II        BJP
Civilians                        757                        493            241
Security Forces           326                         266            172
Terrorists                     932                         620           452
North-East                   603                         398           214
Maoist                           702                         713            357
J&K                               600                         246           279

Analysis of Terror Attacks and Bomb blasts Under BJP and UPA

Number of civilians killed in terrorism per year came down by 68%, when we compare UPA (10 years) to BJP. Even 2012 and 2013, the “best performing” years for UPA, had 252 and 303 civilian deaths, which is higher than the BJP average.

Number of security personnel deaths almost halved from UPA (10 years).

Number of terrorist deaths have also almost halved, indicating that terrorist activity has also reduced.

Violence in North-East has come down significantly in BJP rule. It has been dropping significantly with every passing year of BJP rule and is now at its lowest in the last 14 years.

Maoist violence has also come down, especially since 2012, though not as steadily.

Violence in J&K is higher under BJP compared to UPA-II (but not UPA-I). This is due to increase in terrorist activity after Burhan Wani’s 2016 killing.

Terror Attacks Under BJP & UPA Away From Border Areas

If we look at terrorist attacks outside the trouble spots of J&K, Punjab and North-east, data is below, showing average number of terror incidents per year, and average number of deaths per year.

Category                           UPA (10 years)         UPA-II         BJP
No of Incidents                         6                             4                 4
Civilian Deaths                        100                         19                1
Security Forces                         4                              1                 1
Terrorists                                   4                              1                 4

Though there is no significant change in number of incidents, the number of civilian causalities has come down significantly under BJP. 2016-2018 have seen no civilian deaths, though there have been 11 incidents.

Security Infrastructure Established by BJP

Counter-terrorism partnerships with the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Saudi Arabia and Bangladesh.

This success of our security agencies is noteworthy in the face of increasing focus of the global terrorist groups Islamic State and Al-Qaeda and their persistent attempts to target India and Indian interests. So far, they have drawn a blank

The Indian Army under ‘Operation Sadbhavana (Goodwill)’ is reaching out to communities in far-flung areas of the Jammu region through a series of civilian programmes aimed at improving the lives of people. From engaging youngsters in sporting activities and debates on issues such as drug abuse, the Army is also organising medical camps and capacity building tours for students and farmers regularly under the operation.