NEW DELHI, 25 October — India said yesterday it had begun pulling back its soldiers from the border with Pakistan and that the withdrawal would take about six weeks. "The process has begun. This will take about one-and-a-half months. We are trying to do it faster," Defense Minister George Fernandes told reporters after addressing a conference of coast guard commanders. The withdrawal will end the longest and biggest peacetime deployment in India’s history. Pakistan has also announced it would withdraw its forces in response to the Indian decision. The two countries massed nearly a million troops along their common border after a deadly raid on India’s Parliament last December that New Delhi blamed on Pakistan-based activists fighting its rule in Muslim-majority Jammu and Kashmir state. India has said the withdrawal would not include those troops posted along the Line of Control, a cease-fire line dividing the Kashmir region, which has been at the heart of the military confrontation with Pakistan. Indian military officials said special trains and convoys would be requisitioned to bring the troops back to the barracks, and that it could take several months for farm fields to be cleared of mines. The two nuclear-armed nations, however, showed no signs of moving toward peace talks, and were wrangling over a regional summit to be hosted by Islamabad early next year. Pakistan said it proposed to hold the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation summit from Jan. 11 to 13, and accused Indian officials of sowing confusion over the conference that could only take place if the heads of government of all seven states agreed to attend.
