salman77
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SRINAGAR, India: Any move to demilitarize Kashmir as part of a broader peace plan with Pakistan would be fatal for India, the army said Wednesday in an unusual statement on policy.
The remarks in an article released by the army's press office came days before India's foreign minister is scheduled to travel to Pakistan for talks that are expected to focus on the divided Himalayan region.
Noting that Kashmir is beset by an Islamic insurgency and has been the scene of two conflicts between India and Pakistan and one with China since independence in 1947, the article said that "in such a situation, withdrawal of defense forces would be fatal."
The article was authored by Lt. Col. S. D. Goswami, the military spokesman in Jammu, the winter capital of India's Jammu-Kashmir state. He released it to journalists, and said that it represented the military's stand on recent proposals from Pakistan and separatist political groups in Indian Kashmir for the region to be demilitarized and granted a wide degree of autonomy that would be overseen by a joint Indian-Pakistani administration.
"It is a dangerous proposal for India because it will dilute India's control in two-thirds of the original Jammu-Kashmir state," the article said.
"Besides, there cannot be a 'Joint Management' between a military dictatorship called Pakistan and democracy like India."
The article comes despite the fact that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh reacted favorably to the proposals of Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf
Officials in Singh's office were not immediately available for comment.
India and Pakistan, both nuclear armed, have been engaged in a fitful peace process since 2004. But there has been little progress on Kashmir. Both claim all of the region, which lies at the heart of their rivalry.
The remarks in an article released by the army's press office came days before India's foreign minister is scheduled to travel to Pakistan for talks that are expected to focus on the divided Himalayan region.
Noting that Kashmir is beset by an Islamic insurgency and has been the scene of two conflicts between India and Pakistan and one with China since independence in 1947, the article said that "in such a situation, withdrawal of defense forces would be fatal."
The article was authored by Lt. Col. S. D. Goswami, the military spokesman in Jammu, the winter capital of India's Jammu-Kashmir state. He released it to journalists, and said that it represented the military's stand on recent proposals from Pakistan and separatist political groups in Indian Kashmir for the region to be demilitarized and granted a wide degree of autonomy that would be overseen by a joint Indian-Pakistani administration.
"It is a dangerous proposal for India because it will dilute India's control in two-thirds of the original Jammu-Kashmir state," the article said.
"Besides, there cannot be a 'Joint Management' between a military dictatorship called Pakistan and democracy like India."
The article comes despite the fact that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh reacted favorably to the proposals of Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf
Officials in Singh's office were not immediately available for comment.
India and Pakistan, both nuclear armed, have been engaged in a fitful peace process since 2004. But there has been little progress on Kashmir. Both claim all of the region, which lies at the heart of their rivalry.
