June 19, 2002	Wednesday	Rabi-us-Sani 7, 1423

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SRINAGAR, June 18: US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld last week proposed the deployment of US troops in occupied Kashmir, but India rejected the suggestion, the head of the held state’s government said on Tuesday.

“We fear that if they (US troops) come they may occupy the land,” chief minister Farooq Abdullah said. “So we told them to remain where they are.”

“When troops enter into some country, they withdraw with great difficulty,” he said while talking to reporters in Srinagar.

US officials have denied that they have proposed the deployment of forces.

But Farooq said New Delhi would have no objection to US troops in Azad Kashmir to monitor what he called the movement of rebels. Farooq noted there has always been some US “intervention” in Kashmir.

“Americans are very much there, whether we like it or we don’t like it,” said the chief minister, who last week escaped an assassination attempt.

“I wish Americans came here for holidays, but not with guns,” he said.—AFP