NEW DELHI/ISLAMABAD, 22 October — India said yesterday troops massed on the border with Pakistan since December, will start pulling out in about 10 days after arrangements for a phased withdrawal are in place. India and Pakistan said last week they would move tens of thousands of troops to peacetime locations, but not those on a tense cease-fire line in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir, the cause of two of the three wars between the nuclear-armed rivals.
"It will take eight to 10 days before the formal redeployment starts," an Indian Army spokesman told reporters. "These things take time. Demining has to be done, we have to deactivate the forward bunkers. Troops cannot suddenly start coming back leaving everything there," he said. The move signaled an end to the biggest and longest deployment of weary soldiers in the region since independence, but left the two nations still poles apart on Kashmir.
Pakistan said yesterday that all of its troops would be pulled back from its internationally-recognized border with India, but refused to specify numbers. "Pakistan will withdraw all its troops to peacetime locations," military spokesman Maj. Gen. Rashid Qureshi told reporters in Islamabad. He was unable to give a timetable for the withdrawals.
Pakistan announced the troop withdrawal Thursday in response to India’s decision a day earlier to demilitarize the international border, signaling the biggest step towards de-escalation in the tense 10-month military standoff between the nuclear neighbors.
India, however, continues to rule out direct talks with Pakistan, saying Islamabad must first fully end the infiltration of militants into Kashmir where India is battling a 13-year bloody revolt. Indian military officials said the withdrawal of troops would take six to eight weeks, and several months to clear mines from farm fields along the border. "It took us three weeks to deploy, and that is after everything was given to us on a priority basis. It will take much longer to re-deploy, special trains, convoys have to be arranged," another Indian Army official said.
Meanwhile, Indian Defense Minister George Fernandes yesterday opened a military conference expected to focus on the withdrawal of troops. Fernandes kicked off the meeting with a promise to hone the combat skills of the crash-plagued air force.
