New Delhi is considering a phased withdrawal of the army from some districts of Kashmir — the most militarised region in the world — more than three decades after an anti-India armed rebellion broke out in the Himalayan valley.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government reportedly intends to replace the army with paramilitary forces.
However, the army will still be stationed on the Line of Control — the line that divides the disputed region between India and Pakistan, the Indian Express reported.
Mr Modi’s government sent tens of thousands of additional army and paramilitary troops to Kashmir, which already had 500,000 armed personnel stationed there in 2019.
They arrived after India scrapped Article 370 of its constitution, which gave special powers to the restive region. The southern Indian side of Kashmir was subsequently brought under India's direct control.
Since then, India gradually increased its security presence in Kashmir as the arbitrary move led to a sharp increase in armed violence.
At least 44 killings — comprising 19 militants, 13 civilians and 12 members of the armed forces — occurred last year alone.
The Indian Express quoted a source who said the discussion to withdraw the army was at an advanced stage, and involved the federal Defence and Home Affairs ministries and the region's police force.
“The matter is under serious discussion at interministerial level and it is understood to be feasible,” a senior security establishment officer told the Indian Express.
“In a way, the decision has been taken and it is a matter of when it will be done. Ultimately, however, it will be a political call.”
It is proposed that the Central Reserve Police Force, a paramilitary unit, will take up the role of army units removed from the valley, and maintain law and order.
The army and the Central Reserve Police Force did not respond to The National’s requests for comment.
There are 130,000 Indian soldiers in the disputed region, with about 80,000 stationed at the Line of Control. In addition, hundreds of thousands of paramilitary and special police forces are also stationed across the valley.
Mr Modi’s government has claimed that New Delhi’s direct rule has helped bring normality to the region and that his government has done a better job in tackling militants, which it says are funded and supported by Islamabad.
The Kashmir region is ruled by India and Pakistan in part but claimed by both in its entirety since former colonial power Britain left the subcontinent in 1947.
The two countries have fought three wars over the region while a three-decade-long armed insurgency has claimed the lives of tens of thousands of people.
“Since the August 5, 2019 decisions, violence in the valley has steadily reduced,” a Home Ministry official said.
“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.”
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- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
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MATCH INFO
Final: England v South Africa, Saturday, 1pm
Specs
Engine: Electric motor generating 54.2kWh (Cooper SE and Aceman SE), 64.6kW (Countryman All4 SE)
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Gothia Cup 2025
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The specs
- Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
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LETTERS AND DRAMA
Fiction
"The Nickel Boys" by Colson Whitehead (Doubleday)
Drama
"A Strange Loop" by Michael R. Jackson
History
"Sweet Taste of Liberty: A True Story of Slavery and Restitution in America" by W. Caleb McDaniel (Oxford University Press)
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"Sontag: Her Life and Work" by Benjamin Moser (Ecco/HarperCollins)
Poetry
"The Tradition" by Jericho Brown (Copper Canyon Press)
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"The Undying: Pain, Vulnerability, Mortality, Medicine, Art, Time, Dreams, Data, Exhaustion, Cancer, and Care" by Anne Boyer (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
and
"The End of the Myth: From the Frontier to the Border Wall in the Mind of America" by Greg Grandin (Metropolitan Books)
Music
"The Central Park Five" by Anthony Davis, premiered by Long Beach Opera on June 15, 2019
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Ida B. Wells
Six large-scale objects on show
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- Frank Lloyd Wright’s 1930s Kaufmann Office
- A full-scale Frankfurt Kitchen designed by Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky, which transformed kitchen design in the 20th century
- Torrijos Palace dome
BIGGEST CYBER SECURITY INCIDENTS IN RECENT TIMES
SolarWinds supply chain attack: Came to light in December 2020 but had taken root for several months, compromising major tech companies, governments and its entities
Microsoft Exchange server exploitation: March 2021; attackers used a vulnerability to steal emails
Kaseya attack: July 2021; ransomware hit perpetrated REvil, resulting in severe downtime for more than 1,000 companies
Log4j breach: December 2021; attackers exploited the Java-written code to inflitrate businesses and governments
Tearful appearance
Chancellor Rachel Reeves set markets on edge as she appeared visibly distraught in parliament on Wednesday.
Legislative setbacks for the government have blown a new hole in the budgetary calculations at a time when the deficit is stubbornly large and the economy is struggling to grow.
She appeared with Keir Starmer on Thursday and the pair embraced, but he had failed to give her his backing as she cried a day earlier.
A spokesman said her upset demeanour was due to a personal matter.
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Match info
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Result: Australia win by an innings and five runs
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