SRINAGAR, India, 13 September 2005 — India has pulled out all of its paramilitary soldiers deployed in Kashmir’s main city, Srinagar, replacing them with armed police, a senior security official said yesterday.
Some 9,000 soldiers of the Border Security Force have been withdrawn from Srinagar and replaced with men from the Central Reserve Police Force, Inspector General of BSF J.P. Negi said.
The government began deploying Indian Army and paramilitary soldiers in towns and villages of India’s portion of Kashmir after a separatist movement in the region turned violent in 1989. Police were found lacking in skill to counter the insurgents.
People of Kashmir have, however, increasingly complained about human rights violations committed by the hundreds of thousands of soldiers, who remain deployed in civilian areas.
The pullout from Srinagar, which began more than a week ago, coincided with the resumption of peace talks between the government and Kashmir’s moderate separatist leaders.
During his meeting with separatists last week, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh gave assurances that the government would withdraw troops in phases from other areas as well.
“The BSF is being replaced in four phases,” said Negi, adding that under the first two phases in 2003 and this year, 20,000 of the 50,000 troops were pulled out from counterinsurgency operations.
He said the remaining border troops would be replaced by federal police over the next two years.
“The withdrawal of BSF (from Kashmir) will be completed by 2007,” Negi said.
The paramilitary force claims it has killed at least 2,700 suspected militants and arrested nearly 10,000 of them since it was deployed in Kashmir in 1990. The dead, BSF claims, included 38 rebel commanders.
