Troops quit Kashmir summer capital

Indian army soldiers wave from the back of a truck in Srinagar yesterday prior to their departure from the state as part of the troop pullout. Indian troops starting leaving the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir from November 17, in a move which was welcomed by Pakistan. PHOTO: AFP

A battalion of Indian army soldiers yesterday pulled out of Kashmir's summer capital Srinagar, marking the first withdrawal from the urban hub of insurgency in the Himalayan state, officials said.

India has been cutting troops from Kashmir since November 17, in a planned move to nurture a fragile peace process with nuclear-armed rival Pakistan.

A fall in incursions by Islamic militants into Indian Kashmir from the Pakistani-zone and less violence in the hinterland were given as the reasons for the troop cut.

The cut comes a day before the arrival of Pakistan Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz in New Delhi to meet Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to discuss the status of peace talks on Kashmir.

Reports say India may pull-out as many as 40,000 of an estimated 200,000 soldiers in the state, which has been hit by an anti-Indian rebellion since 1989. Thousands have died since the unrest broke out.

"Today (Monday) one battalion of Indian army troops have pulled out of the hinterland. They will be deployed outside the state," Indian army spokesman Colonel Sam Sung told reporters in Srinagar.

The troops wearing camouflaged clothes boarded buses, trucks and jeeps, and waved at their colleagues at Srinagar's high-security army airport.

Srinagar, which serves as summer capital between May to October, is regarded as a hotbed of the insurgency and is frequently the scene of car-bomb explosions, clashes and ambushes by rebels against Indian forces.

However, the violence has been declining sharply in the state's main city over the past year.