Jammu and Kashmir Director General of Police SP Vaid said that there has been a 90% drop in stone-pelting incidents in the Valley in 2017, PTI reported on Monday.

“There are weeks when there is not even a single case of stone pelting while in a day [in 2016] there used to be more than 50 incidents,” Vaid said. He added that there was a huge change in people’s mood and the law and order situation in Kashmir has improved immensely.

Vaid said raids carried out by the National Investigation Agency has helped bring down stone pelting, but added that that was not the only factor. “The main credit goes to the people of Kashmir,” he said, adding that Kashmiris have probably realised the futility of pelting stones and damaging their own property as well as that of the society.

Besides, he said, the “fatigue factor and action against top commanders” may have helped. “Most of the top leadership of Hizbul Mujahideen and Lashkar-e-Taiba has been neutralised...I think roughly 170 militants have been eliminated this year,” he said.

“At many places, it [stone pelting] was driven by militancy,” said the director general of police. “The role of demonetisation and...administrative action against instigators and slapping cases against those who were involved in sabotage peace has also contributed.”

The police chief also credited detentions under the Public Safety Act, an increase in political activity and the co-ordination between the state police, the Army and other security agencies for the fall in such incidents.