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| J&K CM makes his presence felt | | Immediate troop withdrawal in Kashmir is ruled out | | BL KAK
NEW DELHI, Apr 24:
The government of India on Tuesday sent out a significant signal on the future of troops in Jammu and Kashmir. Indeed, the Prime Minister himself clearly suggested that his government has no immediate plans to effect major changes in the present deployment of troops in the State.
While inaugurating the third roundtable conference on Kashmir in New Delhi,Manmohan Singh made use of diplomatic language in support of the presence of troops in Jammu and Kashmir. The Prime Minister, in fact, linked their deployment pattern to the extent of terrorism. In other words, the Union government has supported the assessment of the J&K Chief Minister, Ghulam Nabi Azad, that as terrorist outfits had not yet closed their 'shops', the question of reducing or withdrawing troops from Jammu and Kashmir did not merit immediate attention.
Ahead of the conference, Union Home Minister, Shivraj Patil, on April 23, chaired a meeting with Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister to finalise the agenda. It was attended by National Security Advisor, M K Narayanan and senior officials of the Home Ministry and the Prime Ministers' Office. Ghulam Nabi Azad's demand, which is against the demand of Mufti Mohammed Sayeed, patron of the People's Democratic Conference (PDP), for the troop withdrawal, has, signifcantly, found takers in the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) and the vital Ministries of Home and Defence.
And on April 24, pro-Indian politicians from Kashmir held talks with New Delhi to push for peace in the troubled Himalayan region, but with separatist groups staying away they are expected to make little progress. The talks with the Union government leaders led by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is the third in a series of roundtable conferences started last year, and the first in nearly a year.
Apart from breathing new life into a process that was considered to be flagging, the talks are to discuss reports by experts on economic development, governance, moves to build trust and ties with Pakistani Kashmir. Political separatists led by the moderate All Parties Hurriyat Conference have declined invitations to the talks, saying the dialogue does not address the main territorial dispute and also does not involve militants fighting "Indian rule" there.Separatist politicians had similarly boycotted the first two roundtable talks.
The Himalayan region, India’s only Muslim-majority State, is at the heart of six decades of rivalry between New Delhi and Islamabad, both of whom claim it in full but rule it in parts.Tens of thousands of people have been killed in an insurgency in Indian Kashmir that erupted in 1989.
Although violence levels have fallen since India and Pakistan began peace talks three years ago, progress towards a final settlement of the dispute has been slow. Some separatist groups, mainstream politicians as well as Pakistan have demanded India reduce troop levels in Kashmir, which is considered one of the world’s most militarised regions. While New Delhi says it is too early for such a step, it set up a panel last month to determine if it could be done.
The majority of separatists, including both moderate and hardline Hurriyat Conference factions announced boycot of the conference. However, Hashim Qureshi, one of the founders of JKLF who now heads Jammu and Kashmir Democratic Liberation Party, is the lone separatist presence at the meeting. He had attended the first Round Table but boycotted the second one. The Prime Minister had an open mind when he wanted all Kashmiri leaders including the ones belonging to the separatist camp to join the peace process to ensure greater benefits for the people of J&K.
By the time the conference was inaugurated by the Prime Minister, it was officially suggested that the conference
would deliberate on the contentious issue of providing relief to the family members of militants who are killed in an encounter. The J&K government headed by Ghulam Nabi Azad has been advocating for this contending that in the absence of state support the family members of the militants look towards the separatists and become an easy fodder for militants.
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