NEW DELHI, 31 March 2007 — Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has decided to form a panel of experts to determine whether to reduce troop numbers in Kashmir, an official said yesterday, after a fall in violence in the restive Himalayan region.
“The panel would be an expert and professional body intended to carry out an in-depth assessment of the situation,” according to prime minister’s Media Adviser Sanjaya Baru.
The panel would also “undertake a review of the application of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, which gives the army sweeping powers to arrest suspects without charge, to different areas of Jammu and Kashmir. This would conform to legal requirements for a periodic review of the application of the Armed Forces Act.”
The prime minister has been under pressure from Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, the leader of a coalition ally in Kashmir, who threatened to pull his party out from the state government if some of the roughly 500,000 troops were not withdrawn from the area. India has around half a million troops in Kashmir battling a separatist insurgency.
India pulled out a few thousands troops in early 2006 from Kashmir due to decreased levels of violence. Sayeed, leader of the People’s Democratic Party, said violence in Kashmir had fallen since India and Pakistan began a peace process in 2004, some troops should leave the region. Manmohan’s Congress party, which heads the federal government, is the leading partner in the Kashmir coalition.
After a meeting between Manmohan and Sayeed yesterday, the government said the expert panel would be set up and headed by the defense secretary, the Defense Ministry’s top bureaucrat.
“It would determine whether there is need to relocate and reconfigure security forces,” Manmohan’s office said. The panel will include representatives from the Home Ministry, the army and the Kashmir government, but officials said there was no timeframe for it to complete its assessment.Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has pressed for the demilitarization of Kashmir as a step toward a final solution to the neighbors’ decades-old dispute over the region.
The Indian Army, however, says it is too early to withdraw troops, warning it could play into the hands of militants who, it claims, are backed by Pakistan. In New Delhi, Sayeed told reporters he was satisfied with the government’s move to set up a panel. “The concerns have been resolved in a dignified and gracious manner,” he said. The decision to set up an expert panel comes days ahead of meeting of leaders of South Asian nations in New Delhi.
Human rights groups accuse Indian troops of widespread rights violations. The army says cases of abuse are isolated acts and it prosecutes any soldier found guilty of human rights violations.
Rebels Kill Five
Meanwhile, separatist rebels shot dead five road workers and wounded three others in Kashmir, police said yesterday.
