Srinagar: 

Praising the Central Reserve Police Force or the CRPF, the country’s largest paramilitary force, Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday said in a few years’ time the force may no longer be needed in Jammu and Kashmir and northeast.

This is for the first time that the government at the highest level has broadly indicated doing away with massive security deployment in Kashmir and also set a timeline of achieving it within a few years.

“The resolve with which CRPF has been working in Kashmir, Naxal areas and Northeast, I’m confident that within next few years, in all three regions, we may not require use of CRPF and maintain complete peace in three regions. I’m confident. And if it happens, the whole credit goes to CRPF,” Mr Shah said today at the 83rd raising day parade of the CRPF in Srinagar’s Maulana Azad Stadium.

The CRPF has a huge presence in Kashmir. Around one fourth of its total manpower is deployed in the region to deal with militancy and law and order situation.