NEW DELHI, June 25: India’s defence minister on Sunday rejected a call by Pakistan for troop cuts in Kashmir to push forward a slow-moving peace process, citing a recent spiral of violence in the region.
“With the present situation, I am not confident that we can reduce troops,” India’s Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee told the CNN-IBN TV channel.
Infiltration and attempts at infiltration have also increased, Mukherjee said.
The minister’s comments came after Pakistan’s president Pervez Musharraf suggested demilitarisation as a solution to the decades of dispute between India and Pakistan over Kashmir.
“I have proposed demilitarisation as a ... final resolution. Demilitarise Kashmir, give self-governance to people of Kashmir with a joint management arrangement on top. This is an idea I am proposing,” reports quoted Musharraf as saying.
In another interview to the NDTV news channel telecast on Sunday, Mukherjee alleged Islamabad has allowed militant training camps to operate from its zone of Kashmir.
He said taking steps to halt violence would produce results from India in the peace process.—AFP
