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| Gen Sinha pooh poohs troop cut demand | | | Even as the tempers among the Congress and the Peoples Democratic Party cool down for a while on the issue of discord between them, the Governor Lt Gen SK Sinha has yet again rejected the demand for reduction in troop strength in Jammu and Kashmir.
Speaking on the sidelines of a book release function in New Delhi today, Gen Sinha said,
"People, who are demanding demilitarisation do no not know what it means. It means vacating the entire region of the army. Return of troops can take place when insurgency is under control, then the police can take over. Unfortunately we have not reached that stage yet".
He said the troop reduction had become a "favourite topic" for everybody and political parties were moving around claiming that one does not require five lakh army for 1000 militants. "Let me tell you that there are thousand of sleeper cells and thousands of militants are waiting to take over, so let us not get misled by such superficial analysis," he said.
The comments from Sinha came amid demands from PDP, part of the ruling coalition in the state, which has been demanding reduction of troops engaged in counter-insuregncy duties.
To a question whether there was an increase in the levels of infilitration in the state, he said it was always going up and down and during the months of April and May this year, the figures were alarming.
To a question about the reported presence of Al Qaeda in the region, he said "not that I know of it but there might be some sympathisers, yes."
He also said that the policies relating to Kashmir should be jointly handled by the Ministries of External Affairs and Defence, if fruitful results were to be obtained for the people of the region in the immediate future.
He claimed that democracy has been throttled in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), and has never existed in the Northern Territories.
He said that it was heartening to see the focus of writers and experts shifting away from events in the Kashmir Valley to what was going on in the largely neglected Pakistan occupied Kashmir.
There was a need to report, or write on the Kashmir region in a balanced and objective manner, to prevent the international community, and the West in particular, from passing skewed judgement or opinion, he added.
While welcoming the opening of the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad Road, Governor Sinha, a former Vice-Chief of Army Staff, however, said that steps should be taken by both India and Pakistan to open road links between Kargil and Skardu, as divided families in that area were more, and both governments would do well to meet their longstanding desire to establish contact with their kith and kin again.
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