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| Pakistan must bridges ties India | | |
Pakistan has termed Indian Union Home Minister, P Chidambaram's recent statement on gradual withdrawal of troops from the inhabited areas in Kashmir as a "positive develoment." In fact Pakistan's Foreign Minister, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, was the first dignitary to welcome Chidambaram's statement on withdrawal of troops, which has been the main demand of the Kashmiri separatists and the mainstream opposition PDP. Qureshi has gone a step ahead and believes that withdrawal of troops would build the right environment needed for the resumption of stalled bilateral talks between India and Pakistan. Qureshi has belatedly realised that withdrawal of troops would also mean a great deal for the people of Kashmir who have suffered immensely because of presence of troops in their midst for a long time Well Qureshi should know it that troops or men of the paramilitary forces were deployed to secure the lives of people.There have been series of instances where people would protest against removing security pickets lest they should be attacked by militants. His assessment may not be totally incorrect but he should have introspected a bit over the matter. Had he gone deep into the events that led to the deployment of troops within the civilian areas he would have realised that it was the result of Pakistan aided proxy war in Kashmir. Since 1988 Pakistan had set up series of camps in various areas of occupied Kashmir and around Rawalpindi and Lahore where Kashmiri youths were trained in handling of arms and explosives. They were assisted by large groups of foreign mercenaries in sneaking into Jammu and Kashmir where they kicked up violence. Qureshi needs to be told that prior to the rise of militancy in 1989 the total strength of the police in Jammu and Kashmir used to be around 30,000.During these 20 years of turmoil and insurgency their number has gone upto over 1.20 lakhs. Before militancy not a single company of troops had been deployed within the civilian areas and the deployment of paramilitary forces was quite insignificant but during these two decades their number has swelled to several battalions. Why So ?Simply to tackle the Pakistan sponsored proxy war. Despite kicking up insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir India has been willing to discuss bilateral problems through negotiations. And in this case several rounds of talks between the two sides have been held since 2003.But the channels of dialogue stand choked since the Mumbai carnage. And Delhi is right while saying that talks would be resumed after Pakistan ensured that its soil would not be used for exporting terrorism to India. And if Shah Mehmood Qurshi wants talks to be resumed, if he wants peace in Kashmir, if he wants people in Kashmir be rid of human rights violations he and his Government should build the right atmosphere which is possible if Islamabad stops all assistance to militants and dismantles the training camps and any other terror infrastructure. Without this even the Indian Home Minister may not be able to implement his commitment on withdrawal of troops.
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