NEW DELHI, May 16 (UPI) -- Refusing to reduce troops in the restive Kashmir region, India has said it would deal firmly with terror and continue to hold peace talks.
The government said Tuesday that it would deal firmly with terrorism and continue to pursue dialogue with responsible individuals and groups in its quest to establish peace in the disputed state.
"Redeployment is different from reducing (force levels) and demilitarization is different. There is no question of withdrawal of forces and no question of demilitarization (until) terrorism ends," Interior Minister Shivraj Patil told Indian lawmakers.
Patil said the government was doing its duty in combating terrorism and did not seek to condone the latest incidents by pointing fingers over some 30-odd incidents of violence in the region when the National Democratic Alliance government was in office. He affirmed that outbreaks of violence in the state have come down drastically.
"The state government has beefed up security, extended all possible help to the victims and the next of kin of those killed in the latest incidents," Patil said.
Opposition leader Lal Kishen Advani charged the government with failing to make security arrangements for the protection of citizens in the border areas of Jammu and Kashmir.
Advani said he viewed these incidents as having a sinister design of religious cleansing.
Former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee inquired as to whether the government planned to reduce troop levels, saying that forces in Jammu and Kashmir should not be scaled down.
