India on Friday said that there can be no pull out of troops from Jammu and Kashmir unless violence ends and a similar disengagement in Siachen Glacier can be undertaken only when delineation on the troop positions is carried out.
"I don't think there can be a pull out unless violence is stopped," Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee said when asked about the demand for reduction of troops made by Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf.
"If there is no terrorist activity, there is no reason for the armed forces to be there," he said in an interview to The Week magazine.
On proposals to pull back in Siachen Glacier, Mukherjee said the disagreement between India and Pakistan was that while India wants a delineation on the map showing the position of the troops before the pull back, Pakistan did not feel this was necessary.
"If we vacate the posts, and they occupy them tomorrow, how do we establish before the international community that this was what we had? Still, we are talking," the defence minister said.
In the interview, Mukherjee touched upon major issues, including arms supplies to Nepal, threat of fundamentalists in the Maldives and prospects for peace in the Northeast.
On Nepal, Mukherjee said the engagement with authorities had to be there since if India does not provide arms supplies to Royal Nepalese Army, other countries may step in.
