SRINAGAR: The Union government is considering a phased withdrawal of Indian Army from the hinterland of the Kashmir Valley, according to a report.
Newspaper The Indian Express on Monday reported that the Narendra Modi government is considering a plan to withdraw the Army from the interior of Kashmir in a phased manner and replace it with Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel.
The report says the plan has been in the making for around two years and the Union Ministries of Defence and Home Affairs along with the military and J&K Police are part of the deliberations.
The Modi government’s plan is in “advanced stage” and it is a matter of when rather than if, reported The Indian Express.
However, the final call is yet to be taken on the plans and it’s still in the deliberative phase for now.
The Indian Express reports that the withdrawal is not just a sign of normalcy in Kashmir Valley but it’s a way to make the normalcy visible as the Modi government believes the security situation has improved since August 2019 when the J&K’s special status was scrapped.
On August 5, 2019, the Modi government scrapped the special status of J&K, converted it from a state into a Union Territory (UT), and bifurcated it into two UTs of J&K and Ladakh. Since then, the Modi government has claimed that the security situation has improved and stone-pelting has reduced.
A Union Home Ministry official told The Indian Express, “Since the August 5, 2019 decisions, violence in the Valley has steadily reduced. Stone pelting has almost vanished and the law-and-order situation is largely under control. However, a large presence of the Indian Army in the hinterland would sit oddly with claims of normalcy.”
If the plan is implemented, then the Army would only be deployed in forward areas of Kashmir along the Line of Control (LoC), the de-fecto India-Pakistan border.
If the Modi government approves the plan, then the Army would first be removed from two districts and then further action would be taken based on the resultant security situation, according to report.
The stand of the Indian Army is to reduce the numbers of Rashtriya Rifles (RR) personnel in Kashmir.
The Express reports, “The official said that one proposal discussed is to remove the Rashtriya Rifles (RR) of the Indian Army in three phases and replace them with CRPF…Another official, privy to details of the discussions, said as of now the Army is only talking about decreasing the strength and not removing RR completely. The Army, according to defence sources, is already planning a resizing.”
As per the report, first companies in existing battalions would be reduced and this way around 15,000 personnel could be freed from interior regions.
Notably, several thousand additional security personnel were deployed in Kashmir region around the time J&K’s special status was scrapped.
