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| No troop cut in J&K: Antony | | | EARLY TIMES REPORT
MUMBAI, Jan 21: Rebuffing recent statements of Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, Defence Minister A.K. Antony today ruled out any reduction in the presence of the army in Jammu and Kashmir.
Antony clarified that if there was any cut of security forces, it would be of paramilitary troopers only. The statement comes in the backdrop of Home Secretary G.K. Pillai's announcement that government would reduce by a quarter the number of security forces in Kashmir in the next 12 months.
"There was some confusion. The announcement that made was about paramilitary forces," Antony told reporters onboard INS Deepak, a fleet tanker he commissioned earlier in the day. He said that defence ministry had received no proposal for reduction in military personnel in the state from the "people who are working on the ground".
"At present, we do not have any such proposal. People who are working on the ground, they will recommend," he said. Home secretary last week at a seminar in Delhi said the government would reduce by 25 percent the number of security forces in Jammu and Kashmir as part of confidence building measures planned for the state.
Indian Army immediately countered, with its chief, Gen. V.K. Singh, saying that "no person from the home ministry will talk about the army as it is under the purview of the defence ministry. "I am sure that home secretary knows and was talking only about paramilitary forces," Singh maintained.
He said that any decision regarding the reduction of the army's strength in the Kashmir Valley would be taken by the Unified Command, a security grid of the army, paramilitary and police forces that is headed by Chief Minister Omar Abdullah. Echoing this, Antony also asserted that the Unified Command should take any such decision, adding that no recommendation had been made. |
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