Defence minister A.K. Antony on Friday said that the announcement made by Union home secretary G.K. Pillai regarding the withdrawal of forces from Jammu and Kashmir was pertaining to paramilitary forces and not the armed forces. Mr Antony was speaking on the sidelines of the commissioning of Italian-built fleet tanker INS Deepak at the Naval dockyard in Mumbai.
“The number of Army personnel in J&K has already been reduced by 30,000. The current issue of withdrawing forces is regarding the paramilitary forces in the state, not the Indian Army,” Mr Antony said.
The minister added that the Unified Command headquarters in J&K is studying the ground level situation and security and it is up to them to decide and recommend any reduction of number of armed forces. “Please do not mix up the issue of withdrawal of troops between the Army and the paramilitary,” the minister emphasised.
Last week, the Union home secretary Pillai had made a statement that there are plans to reduce forces in J&K by 25 per cent in the next 12 months.