India could consider pulling back some of its troops from its international borders with Pakistan once it is convinced Islamabad has permanently stopped the flow of Islamic rebels into Kashmir and dismantled their camps, an official said on Thursday.
However, the bulk of its massive deployment along its international borders and the Line of Control, the de facto border in Kashmir, will remain at least until October, when elections are held in the disputed state, the defence ministry official said on condition of anonymity.
He said this message was conveyed to visiting United States Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Wednesday when he was in New Delhi on the first leg of a peace mission to South Asia.
”What we conveyed to the visiting US defence secretary was that India was willing to consider pulling back some offensive troops from the international border if Pakistan takes the steps we have demanded,” the official said.
”This does not mean demobilisation. It is also conditional to Pakistan ending infiltration of Islamic militants into Indian-administered Kashmir and dismantling militant training camps in Pakistani-administered Kashmir,” the official said.
”Our demands are the same and there is no change in our stance,” he added.
Islamabad last week gave an assurance to visiting US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage that it would permanently halt the flow of insurgents.
The question of insurgency is at the core of the current, dangerous military stand-off between Indian and Pakistan, which between them have around one million troops massed on their common frontiers, backed by tanks, warplanes and heavy artillery.
The showdown was sparked by an attack on India’s Parliament complex in December, which New Delhi blamed on two Pakistan-based Islamic militant groups battling Indian rule in Kashmir.
Tensions between the two countries heightened further in May after an Islamic militant attack on a civilian bus and an army camp near Kashmir’s winter capital Jammu in which 35 people, including three rebels, were killed.
The Defence Ministry official said India’s emphasis was on ensuring transparent and violence-free elections in Kashmir. ”And for that we need the troops on the borders,” he said.
But some Indian troops stationed along the western international borders with Pakistan — in Punjab, Rajasthan and Gujarat — might be allowed home on leave before then, he said.
On Wednesday Rumsfeld said there were ”indications” that fugitive al-Qaida fighters were now operating in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir, close to the porous border with India.
After a meeting with Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee Rumsfeld revealed that there were fresh signs of al-Qaida activity in the disputed region.
”I don’t have any hard evidence of how many or where,” he said.
This week India claimed that it too had proof that al-Qaida was operating in the area. ”We have every reason to believe there is evidence of al-Qaida operations in Pakistan- controlled Kashmir,” the Indian Foreign Office said. ”We need to be vigilant about this. We have communicated this to the United States.”
Rumsfeld’s comments are likely to please India, which has sought to project its struggle against militancy as part of the global war on terror. They follow unconfirmed reports that US troops might be sent to Indian-controlled Kashmir to continue the flagging hunt for al-Qaida.
US officials have also indicated that Rumsfeld discussed the possibility of supplying India with sophisticated surveillance equipment to detect infiltration across its border with Pakistan.
The US defence secretary praised New Delhi for the ”constructive” steps it had taken over the past three days to end its confrontation with Islamabad.
But he said the crisis between the two nuclear rivals was not over yet. ”The region has been tense and continues to be tense,” he said.