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| Second round of troop disengagement underway | | Kashmir's civilian areas to have little Army presence | |
BL KAK
NEW DELHI, JULY 22: The Union government has quietly and without much fanfare begun the long promised second round of disengagement of troops from civilian areas in Jammu and Kashmir, even as the threat from armed terrorists and militant Islamists persists on the one hand and, on the other hand, infiltration from across the Line of Control (LoC) has not come to a halt.
Critics across the border may dismiss it as nowhere near the complete demilitarisation or the first step towards joint governance they would like to see. To them this is a cosmetic disengagement, the least India could do given that Pakistan has kept the jihadis from attacking Kashmir. India says troop withdrawals are the sovereign decision of Delhi, not done at the behest of another country.
In fact, the calculated withdrawal underlines India's policy that any destabilisation by terrorists in the northern State of Jammu and Kashmir will be tackled by the elected government of the day who will not hesitate to take the terrorists head-on. Despite the slew of terror attacks on India's body politic by elements allied to the Kashmiri jihad, India has for some time now been clear that appeasement was not the answer.
The Congress-led coalition government at he Centre is committed to dialogue and bilateral negotiations; not with the terrorists or separatists who were seen as a tool of Pakistan but with Islamabad itself in a bid to find common ground. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's recent visit to Jammu, the winter capital of the J&K State, where he called for the Line of Control to be turned into a Line of Peace is part of the sustained, overarching message from his government that it will not buckle to radicals on the rampage, or negotiate with terrorists but seek peace on his terms, not at the point of a gun.
Clearly, Manmohan Singh's government remembers the Bill Clinton administration labelling the Kashmir conflict as dangerous to world peace and the implicit threat it would intervene if ever the new nuclear powers were to get involved in a confrontation. According to highly-placed official sources, the troops disengagement in civilian areas of Jammu and Kashmir should not be taken as a signal in relation to Delhi's final approval of the demand for the withdrawal of troops.
These sources explained that the question of troop withdrawal would arise only after the restoration of complete peace and tranquility in the border State of Jammu and Kashmir. More importantly, as the J&K-bound militant Islamists and terrorists on the other side of the LoC are reportedly awaiting an opportunity to infiltrate into the Indian territory in small batches, the presence of troops in sensitive and vulnerable spots in Kashmir "is called for", sources said.
As the Pakistan Army fights pitched battles with militants in the restive tribal areas, rocked by a spate of bomb attacks by jihadis retaliating against the recent attack on Islamabad's Lal Masjid seminary complex, and simultaneously counters the street demonstrations that have turned distinctly anti-Musharraf after the sacking and reinstatement of a sitting chief justice, this backyard of the Afghan conflict is clearly becoming a powder keg. "In such a situation in our neighbourhood, how can one in power corridors of Delhi be forced to atach importance to the demand for troop withdrawal in the troubled State of Jammu and Kashmir", a senior Indian security official said.
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