India decides on phased pullback: Stance on dialogue unchanged
By Jawed Naqvi
NEW DELHI, Oct 16: India’s apex Cabinet Committee on Security headed by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee decided on Wednesday to order a phased withdrawal of troops massed on Pakistan’s borders.
The widely expected move follows sustained Western pressure to defuse tensions between the two neighbours. But perhaps even more significantly Wednesday’s decision followed a fresh vow by President Pervez Musharraf who declared during his visit to Turkey that Pakistan would not initiate a war with India.
Announcing the cabinet decision, Defence Minister George Fernandes said the armed forces would take their time to implement the process of withdrawal.
Ruling out any similar initiative on the diplomatic front, Fernandes said there was no question of resumption of dialogue with Pakistan till cross-border terrorism ends.
Although redeployment would take place on the border, he said this would be undertaken without impairing India’s capacity to respond decisively to any emergency. “There will be no lowering of vigil in Jammu and Kashmir. The chiefs of Army, Air Force and Navy will now be instructed by the Defence Minister accordingly,” Fernandes said in a statement.
Asked about the reasons for the withdrawal when Pakistan, as claimed by India, had not responded to Delhi’s demand for an end to cross-border terrorism and handing over of 20 wanted fugitives, Fernandes said: “For years we have been fighting cross-border terrorism on daily basis. It will continue.”
Earlier Star News reporting from a meeting of the National Security Advisory Board, also presided over by Vajpayee, said it had recommended the withdrawal of the troops deployed along the India-Pakistan border.
The meeting included Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishan Advani, External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha, Finance Minister Jaswant Singh, the three service chiefs and the National Security Adviser to the Prime Minister Brajesh Mishra.
Press Trust of India quoted US officials in Washington as praising the decision to re-deploy troops.
“We certainly have been calling for quite some time for lessening of tensions and standing down of military forces. We certainly are happy to hear about the Indian decision,” one US official said.
In an earlier dispatch from Washington, PTI said India-Pakistan relations were to be the subject of discussion between British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw and the US Secretary of State Colin Powell.
Powell, who along with Straw addressed reporters before the meeting on Tuesday, said that among the topics they would be discussing later was “the situation in India and Pakistan”.
Vajpayee had convened the high-level security meeting to assess India’s options with Pakistan after what New Delhi says were successful elections in Kashmir.
Analysts said the move marked the biggest step towards de-escalation of tension between India and Pakistan.
There would be no change in the deployment along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir.
According to PTI reports, an estimated 300,000 to 400,000 troops will be redeployed to peace-time locations after 10 months of eyeball-to-eyeball confrontation with the Pakistani troops in the aftermath of the terrorist attack on Parliament House in New Delhi on Dec 13.
Vajpayee presided over a 90-minute meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security which took the decision on the troop pullback on Wednesday night, shortly after the National Security Advisory Board, also presided over by him, had recommended this significant step. The withdrawal of troops would entail India pulling back its two strike corps, massed tanks and heavy artillery from the International Border facing Jammu sector, Punjab, Rajasthan and Gujarat.
Deploying 700,000 soldiers on the western borders has cost the government an estimated Rs2,000 crore — stretching the armed forces to their limit.
