India to Pull Back Troops at Border

India said Wednesday that it will withdraw tens of thousands of troops from its border with Pakistan, but not from the cease-fire line that divides the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir.

Pakistan welcomed India’s move to reduce tensions, but it said troops on the cease-fire line also should be withdrawn. The announced pullback “seems to be a positive move,” Pakistani Information Minister Nisar Memon said.

Last week, European Union leaders pressed Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee to move toward dialogue with Pakistan. Memon on Wednesday also called for resumption of talks.

But in announcing the troop movements, Defense Minister George Fernandes ruled out any new talks.

“There is no question of a dialogue with Pakistan as long as Pakistani terrorism continues,” he said after a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security, headed by Vajpayee.

India accuses Pakistan of funding and training Islamic militants who cross the frontier to stage attacks in the Indian-held portion of Kashmir. Pakistan denies that it gives the militants material support, but Washington has said the rebels are continuing to cross the Line of Control, a 1972 frontier established after one of the three wars the nations have fought since they were divided at independence in 1947.

Tensions between the two nuclear-armed countries reached the boiling point last spring, when militants killed more than two dozen people in an attack on Indian soldiers’ wives and children at an army housing complex in the state of Jammu and Kashmir. Vajpayee threatened “decisive” action against Pakistan, which responded with a series of missile tests. India also accused Pakistani-based militants of a deadly attack on its Parliament in December.

Since those incidents, the two nations have amassed about 1 million troops along their border. Fernandes -- who did not say how many troops would be withdrawn -- said the army will decide when and where to move any redeployed soldiers.