NEW DELHI, April 11: Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Wednesday that negotiations with Pakistan over troop withdrawal from Siachen were complicated and, therefore, taking time to produce results.
“These are complicated negotiations,” Dr Singh told reporters on the sidelines of a function at the Presidential Palace here. The prime minister was asked to comment on the outcome of the talks with Pakistan about which he was optimistic. “Both sides agreed to continue discussions on the issue,” he said.
Meanwhile a senior army commander in Indian held Jammu and Kashmir ruled out withdrawal of troop from any part of the disputed state in the visible future.
General Officer Commanding-in- Chief, Northern Command, Lt Gen H S Panag told reporters that about 1,300 to 1,500 militants, 40 per cent of them foreigners, were still operating in the border state.
“There is no troop withdrawal from anywhere. There has been no withdrawal of army posts and pickets in remote areas of Jammu and Kashmir at all,” he was quoted by PTI as saying.
Referring to reports of withdrawal of troops and army pickets in Rajouri and Poonch districts, Gen Panag reaffirmed that ‘there was no withdrawal at all’. He said there was always relocation and readjustment of troops as part of security requirements from time to time in that sector.
