On December 31, 2017, five CRPF jawans were killed when heavily armed terrorists had launched a pre-dawn attack on a CRPF camp in Pulwama district

New Delhi: Senior Congress leader and former finance minister P Chidambaram on Sunday hit out at the Centre for failing to restore peace in the Kashmir Valley saying that Modi government`s "hard, muscular and militaristic" approach had failed to end militancy in the state.

He quoted statistics to say that the number of civilians and terrorists killed in Jammu and Kashmir had almost doubled from 28 to 57 and from 110 to 218 from 2014 to 2017 respectively.

"If you are one of those who had thought that the hard, muscular, militaristic approach of the government should be given a chance, you may change your view," Chidambaram said.

The Congress leader added that wisdom lay in actively working towards a political solution to the issues of J&K, where a separatist campaign raging since 1989 has claimed thousands of lives.

"Both AB Vajpayee and Manmohan Singh will be remembered for the diligent efforts to find a solution to the issue", he said.

On Saturday, four policemen on patrol duty were killed in an improvised explosive device blast by militants in a market in Sopore township, the first IED attack in Kashmir since 2015.

The four personnel belonging to Indian Reserve Police-3rd battalion were on law and order duty in the township in north Kashmir, when the IED planted by militants in the market, which was shut due to a separatist sponsored strike, had gone off, police had said.

Earlier, on December 31, 2017, five Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) jawans were killed when heavily armed terrorists had launched a pre-dawn attack on a CRPF camp in Pulwama district of south Kashmir.