SRINAGAR, 26 April 2007 — India should cut its military presence in revolt-hit Kashmir and allow state police to fight the separatist insurgency, a leading regional politician said yesterday.

The move is “imperative” to end alienation among the Himalayan state’s 10 million population and achieve normalization of the region, Mehbooba Mufti, president of the reformist People’s Democratic Party (PDP), said.

“I have urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to take immediate steps toward reducing the number of troops,” said Mehbooba in a statement.

She said she made the request to Manmohan during a conference of Kashmiri politicians in New Delhi on Tuesday urging him to cut troops in a phased manner in the state where separatists have been fighting New Delhi’s rule for 17 years.

Violence has fallen in Kashmir since nuclear-armed India and Pakistan started a slow-moving peace process in January 2004. Insurgency-related deaths have gone down from ten per day in 2001 to three in 2007.

“Now the political and civil society institutions must be allowed to take full charge of consolidating the normalization process,” said Mehbooba, whose party is the junior ruling coalition partner in Kashmir.

India announced late last month it would set up an expert panel headed by the defense secretary to “determine whether there is a need to relocate and reconfigure security forces” in Kashmir.

The promise defused a threat by Mehbooba’s father, Mufti Mohammad Syed who leads the PDP, to pull his party out from the state government if some of the estimated half million troops were not withdrawn from the region.

Indian Kashmir’s Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, who is the ruling coalition’s leader, has opposed cutting troops, saying it would “directly help” the militants.

Officials say more than 42,000 people have been killed in the revolt since 1989. Human rights and Kashmiri groups estimate the toll at about 80,000 dead or missing.

India withdrew several thousands troops in early 2006 from Kashmir after violence abated.

Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has called for demilitarization of the region as a move toward settling the rivals’ six-decade-old dispute over Kashmir.

India’s army opposes an early withdrawal of troops, saying the move could help the rebels who it says operate with Pakistan’s support. Islamabad denies the charge.

Meanwhile, Pakistan’s opposition leader Maulana Fazlur Rehman told Indo-Asian News Service in an interview that the people of Pakistan were yet not ready to accept the LOC as a permanent border.

He said he backed a solution to the Kashmir issue through dialogue that would be acceptable to everyone including Kashmiris. “There is no indication that we are close to a solution. No report has been presented in parliament. It hasn’t been discussed with us,” Rehman, leader of the Muttaheda Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) alliance, said.

“Kashmir is one of the crucial issues. Some call it a big issue while others call it a core issue. Both regimes are engaged in resolving this issue. We support this move,” said the leader of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, a major component of MMA.

“Kashmir solution should be one that should be acceptable to all parties, including Kashmiris,” he said, when asked what would be an ideal solution to the Kashmir dispute that has been the cause of two of the three major wars between India and Pakistan.

“The peace process is going on well and has become strong regardless of who is in power. All parties are in favor of resolving the issue through dialogue. Issues should be solved through dialogue,” he stressed.

“The situation has improved over the last five years. The temperature has come down and the ice over old issues is thawing. The security situation is better,” he said, while pressing for a reduction of Indian troops in Kashmir.

He welcomed the setting up of the joint India-Pakistan anti-terror mechanism, but evaded a direct answer when asked about his views on cross-border terrorism.