Political experts have termed the New Delhi’s so-called proposal to ‘withdraw’ the Indian army from the Valley hinterland three-and-a-half years after the Modi government revoked the special status to occupied Jammu and Kashmir as an attempt to hoodwink both international community as well as the Kashmiri people, who observed a complete strike on February 15 against the Indian government’s anti-Kashmir policies .
As per officials in the Indian security establishment, if the proposal is approved, the army will have presence only on the Line of Control (LoC).
The officials said the proposal to withdraw the army from Kashmir hinterland has been under discussion for about two years and is at an “advanced stage” now with the involvement of the Indian Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Home Affairs, armed forces and police.
“It is proposed that the CRPF would fill in for the army personnel removed from the Valley,” an official told The Indian Express. However, the experts described the entire exercise as a drama as India has already deployed additional troops in the wake of abrogation of Article 370 in the territory, continuing with the heavy deployment goes against its normalcy claim.
This could be verified from the discussion of an Indian home ministry official with the Indian newspaper wherein he said: “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”.
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.
However, another official said as of now the army is only talking about decreasing the strength and not removing its presence completely.
Some experts say that the news about so-called withdrawal has been deliberately leaked to the media by the BJP government after the February 15’s successful strike in IIOJK against eviction and demolition campaign. As per experts, the development comes after policymakers warned the Modi government of a 2016 like uprising, which erupted after the martyrdom of Burhan Wani, if it fails to take some cosmetic measures at the moment. “This proposal is also one of the cosmetic measures, which is aimed at on one hand warding off international pressure and assuring the Kashmiri people to feel relaxed, on the other.”—KMS
