Lieutenant governor Manoj Sinha has made a rare acknowledgment about the surge in militant violence in Jammu, marking a sharp contrast with the country’s political leadership that has been living in denial.

The security forces have succeeded in crushing militancy in the Kashmir Valley but not in Jammu, Sinha told a passing-out parade of police constables in Ganderbal on Friday.

“Terrorist incidents have increased in the Jammu division, which is a matter of concern. Our resolve is to make both Jammu and Kashmir divisions terrorism-free,” the lieutenant governor said.

The country’s top leadership, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah, have been claiming that militancy has been contained thanks to the 2019 scrapping of Jammu and Kashmir’s special status. Sinha had largely echoed them so far.

While Sinha claimed that militancy had been crushed in the Valley, the truth isthat rebel violence has merely decreased in Kashmir and that several major attacks have been witnessed inrecent months.

In October, Gagangir in Ganderbal saw the biggest militant strike on civilians in years that left a local doctor, and six non-local employees of a private company, dead. It was the first attack in the area in several years.

Days later, militants ambushed an army vehicle in the Nagin Valley in Gulmarg, another corner of Kashmir that had been free of militancy, killing two soldiers and two civilian porters and injuring three soldiers.

It’s the Jammu region that has, however, borne the brunt of the insurgency over the past few years after being free of militancy for two decades.

In the latest attack in Jammu, militants killed four policemen in an ambush in Kathua last month. The forces killed two militants in retaliation. Three militants were killed this month in Kishtwar district.

The heads of the country’s security establishment have held multiple meetings, including some chaired by Shah, to discuss the surge in militancy in Jammu. Butthe senior political leadership has publicly stuck to the position that militancy was fast losing ground.

On April 9, Modi told a Rising Bharat summit in Mumbai that Jammu and Kashmir had changed for good after seeing its youth, over multiple generations, “waste” its future over “bombs, guns and stone-throwing”.

“For decades, people ruling the country could not douse the flames,” he said.

“Due to the strong political will of our government and (its) sensibility, things have changed there today. The youth of Jammu and Kashmir today is connected to development.”

On Saturday, Sinha projected Sufism as “a counterforce to extremist ideology”. He was addressing a Sufi conference, Noor-e-Sama, in Srinagar that was being held as part of a government initiative to prop up what it considers a moderate face of Islam.

“Sufism is the most powerful force for peace and harmony in society. Sufism means a way of life. It is a bond of love with the Whole and a loving relationship with God. Sufism is the ultimate art of removing divisions and bringing hearts closer,” Sinha said.

He said the teachings of Sufism reject any kind of violence or discrimination. “Sufism’s teachings are a counterforce to extremist ideology; and its mystical traditions will — through poetry, music and other creative expressions — strengthen counter-radicalisation efforts,” he said.