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| Announcement of committee on Kashmir troop cut likely Friday | | | New Delhi, March 29
The much awaited announcement of the composition of a high-powered committee, which will study the issue of troop reduction
and repeal of "draconian" laws in Jammu and Kashmir, will in all likelihood be made Friday.
The matter assumed immediacy after an informal meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) that discussed the issue of troop reduction and
its relocation in Jammu and Kashmir.
The meeting, chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, was attended by External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Home Minister Shivraj Patil
and Defence Minister A.K. Antony.
"This was an informal CCS meeting," Information and Broadcasting Minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi told reporters when asked about the outcome of
the meeting.
While officially the government was tight-lipped on the issues that were deliberated at the meeting, sources said that troop reduction was the main
issue.
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad also air-dashed to Delhi Thursday to meet Patil and Congress party president Sonia Gandhi.
Azad has been constantly advocating about the difficulties in reducing troops from civilian areas as he feared increase in violence levels and also
stressed the need to take other political parties on board before taking a decision.
Though the Core Committee of the Congress had met Wednesday and discussed the issue of reduction of troops as demanded by the PDP, its alliance
partner in the state, differences persisted on who should head the committee as well as its composition.
Immediately after the meeting, the prime minister spoke to PDP patron Mufti Mohammed Sayeed asking him to wait for a couple of days as he had to
consult his colleagues again to iron out differences among the coalition partners.
This prompted PDP, which was to hold its political affairs meeting Thursday, to postpone it to March 31.
Mufti has been camping in New Delhi for the past ten days, holding a number of meetings with Singh and other senior functionaries in the Congress
party.
Mufti and senior party leader Muzaffar Hussain Beig have also had separate meetings with the National Security Advisor M.K. Narayanan.
During the meetings, Sayeed discussed his demands of troop reduction, the repeal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act that critics say has been
widely misused by the armed forces against innocent people, and evacuating forces from government and non-government buildings and orchards.
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