New Delhi: Newly-installed home minister Amit Shah and defence minister Rajnath Singh are likely to collaborate in a ‘refined’ manner to tackle the Kashmir issue as India’s security forces look to continue momentum in cracking down on terror.

After killing 101 terrorists in the first five months this year, the goal now is to take out the terror leadership in the Kashmir valley, and prepare the ground for a violence-free state elections, multiple sources told ThePrint.

Under the new government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, there will be heightened coordination between the home and defence ministries, a high ranking source in the security establishment told ThePrint.

The sources also said that the summer infiltration season will begin soon and higher vigil and operation-oriented mindset is needed because Pakistan will try to send in more terrorists after the bad hit to terror infrastructure.

At the same time, the security forces are also allowing the locals youth who have picked up arms to give up militancy and return in case they want to.

The understanding in the defence and security establishment is that tactical operations should continue and there should be no let up in the momentum achieved so far.

‘Average of 20 Terrorists Killed’

With the killing of five terrorists in Tral and Shopian Friday, a total of 101 terrorists have been killed by the combined efforts of the Jammu and Kashmir police, the Army and the CRPF in 2019.

“The average is of about 20 terrorists killed,” said the Jammu and Kashmir Police in a statement Friday.

According to the police statistics, the killed terrorists included 25 foreign terrorists and 76 locals belonging to proscribed terror groups like the Pakistan sponsored Jaish-e-Mohammed, Lashkar-e-Taiba, Hizbul Mujahideen and Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind, a group affiliated with Al-Qaeda.

The top terrorists killed include Zakir Musa and the Afghanistan War veteran Abdul Rasheed Ghazi, a Pakistani national also known as Kamran.

Sources said that amid the operations, a special effort is also being taken to ensure that locals who have joined the terror groups come back to the mainstream by giving up their arms.

Jammu and Kashmir DGP Dilbagh Singh had said Tuesday that only about 40 youngsters have joined the terror groups this year, half of what it used to be.