New Delhi: Death of civilian in Jammu and Kashmir rose by 167% last year compared to 2015. The official data released has shown underpinning the high price paid by the state while battling a surge in insurgency in recent years.

The home ministry’s annual report for 2017-18 also showed a 2.44% decline in the number of security personnel deaths over the previous year.

The report comes amid growing allegations by human rights activists and groups over what they say was excessive use of force by security personnel while dealing with civilian protests in the troubled Valley.

The army and state police deny the charges and claim that most of the civilian deaths were due to their interference during counter-insurgency operations.

“The year 2017 witnessed an increase in incidents of terrorist violence and causalities of civilians as compared to the last year. However, casualties of security forces have decreased in comparison to the last year,” said the report’s ‘Security Situation in J&K’ section (see graphic).

“The year 2017 also witnessed a 6.21% increase... in the number of terrorist incidents... in comparison to the corresponding period of 2016,” the report said, adding that the number of militants killed went up by 42%.

The death of civilians in Kashmir spiked after security forces gunned down HizbulMujahideen commander BurhanWani in July 2015, triggering months-long street protests. More than a 100 people were killed as security forces retaliated against stone-pelting protesters, most of them youngsters.

Hundreds of civilians were left with severe eye injuries by pellets fired by the forces. Incidents of left wing extremism (LWE) — the official term used to describe Maoist violence — fell by 20%, from 1,136 in 2016 to 908 last year, the report said. Human casualties related to LWE also fell from 397 to 263, a decline of 33%.