The frequency of attacks in Jammu and Kashmir has spiraled this year. (File Photo)
The casualties suffered by the army in Jammu and Kashmir this year is almost equal to the total combined number of soldiers killed in the last two years.
This year - one of the most violent in recent times -- 63 soldiers were killed in Jammu and Kashmir. The figure was 39 soldiers in 2015 and 26 in 2014.
Today, tributes were paid to three soldiers killed in a terrorist attack on an army convoy at Pampore on the outskirts of Srinagar. They were 35-year-old Naik Ratheesh C from Kerala, Sourabh Nandkumar from Pune, 33, and Shashikant Pandey, 24, from Jhankhand.
The attack comes less than a month after militants struck at an army unit in Nagrota near Jammu, killing seven soldiers.
The frequency of attacks has spiraled this year - the worst of them was on an army installation in Uri near the Line of Control in September, in which 18 soldiers were killed.
Besides an escalation in terrorist strikes in the hinterland, the army casualties have gone up due to a sharp spurt in ceasefire violations and Border Action Team operations by the Pakistani army following the Indian army's surgical strikes on six terror launch pads along the Line of Control.
According to sources, the terrorists being pushed into Jammu and Kashmir by Pakistan are highly trained and indoctrinated.
The government says an escalation points to the frustration of Pakistan, which is also trying to take advantage of the current unrest in Kashmir by instigating violence to destabilise the PDP-BJP government.
"Pakistan has been isolated the world over. That's why it is pushing up the graph of militancy in total desperation. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has exposed Pakistan in the country, in the Middle-East and across the world. That's why Pakistan is causing a spurt in violence in Jammu and Kashmir and on the borders," Deputy Chief Minister Nirmal Singh told NDTV.