NEW DELHI, Jan. 17 (UPI) -- India will maintain troop levels in the troubled state of Jammu and Kashmir, although paramilitary forces may be reduced, the head of the army said.
Gen. V.K. Singh made the announcement after comments by India's Home Secretary G.K. Pillai that one-quarter of troops would be pulled out.
"I think there was some confusion," said Singh. "What Mr. Pillai said was concerning the paramilitary forces. What I was talking of was the army".
"No person from the Home Ministry will talk about the army as it is under the purview of the Defense Ministry. I am quite sure that the Home Secretary knows about it and speaks only about the paramilitary forces," Singh said.
"We have not yet felt that we have to reduce our forces. If they want to cut back paramilitary and police forces, I won't say anything ... it is up to them".
Troop levels and total paramilitary numbers aren't published by the government but last week Pillai said that 25 percent of troops would be withdrawn from Kashmir's urban areas within the year.
"As a confidence-building measure in Jammu and Kashmir, the strength of the security forces would come down by 25 percent," he said during a conference presentation at a university in New Delhi.
Pillai also said he would be working with local police forces to manage the withdrawal.
Pillai's statement was met with caution by leaders of the state's separatist organizations, many of whom have been under arrest or in prison over the past several decades.
India's majority Muslim state of Jammu and Kashmir has been the scene of many violent demonstrations in the past 25 years by separatists who wish to either join neighboring Pakistan, a Muslim majority country, or have Kashmir become independent.
Kashmir remains a flash point between the majority Hindu religion country of India and Pakistan.
Their armies face each other across the state's mountainous and isolated terrain. Both countries periodically blame the other for harboring anti-government insurgents on their side of the border.
The area was split between Pakistan and India when the countries were created upon the withdrawal of British colonial forces in 1947. Pakistan media and some politicians still refer to the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir as "occupied Kashmir".
Fighting within India's disputed state has been concentrated in the Kashmir Valley, 85 miles long and 20 miles wide and in which lies Kashmir's largest city, Srinagar. The valley's population of 4 million is mainly Muslim.
Violent demonstrations have meant police and the military adopting wide-ranging powers of search and arrest under the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, a cause of much resentment among the state's population.
Last summer saw some of the worst disturbances in many years. More than 110 people, including several police and security personnel, died in street fighting in several major towns and cities. The rioting was sparked by the death last June of a 17-year-old student during a demonstration into which paramilitary forces allegedly fired shots.
State and federal government ministers are keen to avoid similar disturbances.
Pillai's remarks appear to show a willingness to reduce everyday tensions between the local population and paramilitary forces patrolling the streets.
But Syed Ali Shah Geelani, leader of the hard-line Hurriyat Conference Independence group, called the reduction in security forces "inconsequential" and reiterated his demand made earlier this month that all Indian troops leave the state.
Geelani said the government "perpetrated the worst form of state terrorism, killed hundreds of people and wounded thousands" in an effort to "push us again into taking up arms. But, let me tell India, that anger and atrocities will not take over us".
Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, head of a moderate faction of the Hurriyat Conference, said troop reductions are welcomed. "We have long been demanding a phased withdrawal of Indian troops," he said. "It could be the first step toward that". UPI
