New Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has dismissed as ‘speculation’ all the talk about an India-Pakistan agreement on demilitarisation of Jammu and Kashmir and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
"These are all speculation," the Prime Minister said in his reaction to Hurriyat Conference chairman Mirwaiz Umer Farooq's claim that India and Pakistan have agreed to reduce troops in Jammu and Kashmir and PoK.
Mirwaiz had made a statement in Srinagar on Friday that the two countries had agreed on the withdrawal of troops from either side of the Line of Control in Kashmir.
The Prime Minister Singh, on the other hand, said security forces had been deployed in J&K only to protect citizens and the government was not averse to reducing their levels once terrorism ceased.
"We will be happy to reduce troops if terrorism ceases as our army is not an army of occupation. They are there to protect the lives and liberties of law-abiding people," Singh said.
The statement came close on the heels of the People's Democratic Party, the Congress' ally in Jammu and Kashmir's ruling coalition, making a strong pitch for the reduction of troops by citing an improvement in the security situation.
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