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| India-Pakistan |
| India pulls out 30,000 troops from Kashmir |
| 2009-12-19 |
| [Iran Press TV Latest] As violence declines at the India-Pakistan border, New Delhi pulls out 30,000 troops from Kashmir, the biggest withdrawal since 1999. India's Defense Minister A.K. Antony talking to reporters on Friday said, "The Indian Army, by their own initiative, have withdrawn two divisions (30,000 men)." According to local media outlets, the troops were pulled out two months ago from the state's southern Rajouri and Poonch sectors in a move seen as a confidence-building measure to get Kashmiri separatists, especially the hardliners, on board for peace talks. If the situation improves further, he said, there will be more troop withdrawals. "It is because of the presence of the armed forces that we have been able to counter terrorism in the state," Antony added. The Indian-administered Kashmir, one of the most militarized zones in the world, was affected by a separatist insurgency for decades and has been the root of tensions between the two nuclear-armed neighbors. The pullout was one of the biggest since 1999, when India and Pakistan fought a six-week undeclared war in the Himalayan peaks in which some 1,000 soldiers on both sides died. India and Pakistan have fought three wars since their independence, two of them over Kashmir. Both claim the region in its entirety -- two-thirds is administered by India and the rest by Pakistan. New Delhi has repeatedly accused Islamabad of fuelling separatist insurgency in the part of Kashmir it administers. The violence has left more than 45,000 people dead over the past two decades. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #1 HMMMMM, HMMMM, wehell, INDIA is repor planning to use 17,000 troops in its biggest offensive agz the NAXALS-MAOISTS thus far, aka RED ULTRAS. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2009-12-19 00:31 |