NEW DELHI (Reuters) â€" India will consider scaling back security in the disputed Kashmir region, the government said on Saturday, in a bid to calm public anger after months of anti-India protests that have killed more than 100 people.
Palaniappan Chidambaram also said the government will soon announce a team to begin a dialogue with a broad section of Kashmir, including political parties and groups.
The decisions are the latest effort by the government to reach out to Kashmir where an air of defiance unseen for years has threatened to undermine India's rule over a region also claimed by its rival and neighbour, Pakistan.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has been accused of not taking seriously enough the largest pro-independence protests in two decades in Kashmir this summer. Saturday's announcement comes after a delegation of Indian lawmakers visited the region this week and met separatist leaders.
"We will request the state government to immediately convene a meeting of the (security) Unified Command and to review the deployment of security forces in Kashmir valley, especially Srinagar," Chidambaram told reporters after a meeting of the Indian cabinet's committee on security.
He said the state government will look at the options for scaling down the number of bunkers and check points in Srinagar, Kashmir's summer capital, and other towns. Kashmir has been in a siege-like state since June with shops and offices closed and education institutions shut. Roads have remained empty.
Chidambaram, seeking to assuage popular anger over a law that gives security forces sweeping powers to shoot, arrest and search people, said the state will seek to limit the areas where the law operates.
Most of Kashmir has, for years, been declared as "disturbed", a necessary step for the application of the hated Armed Forces Special Powers Act.
"We will request the state government to review the notification (of the disturbed areas). They will decide which notifications have to be continued (and) which need not be continued," Chidambaram said.
"We think these steps should address the concerns of different sections of the people in Jammu and Kashmir, including the protesters."
Kashmiri separatists, who accuse the Indian army of large scale violation of human rights, want the armed forces law withdrawn.
Tens of thousands of people have been killed in Kashmir since an armed revolt erupted in 1989, but militancy has weakened over the years.
While a previous generation of Kashmiris often embraced the militancy, a new generation has used street protests, Facebook and mobile phones to spread revolt.
(Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)
(For more news, visit Reuters India)
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