SRINAGAR: The chief minister of Indian Kashmir, Omar Abdullah, has acknowledged Pakistan’s contribution to the ‘remarkable’ drop in violence in the volatile region in recent years.

A 20-year Muslim insurgency against Indian rule in the divided region has claimed more than 47,000 lives, but peace talks initiated between India and Pakistan in 2004 resulted in a sharp fall in violence levels.

‘I would call it remarkable,’ Abdullah told AFP in an interview this week at his high-security residence in the Kashmiri summer capital Srinagar.

‘It would be impossible for levels of violence to be where they are if there wasn’t some amount of influence being brought to bear from Pakistan,’ Abdullah said.

‘I tend to believe that we have reached this point because perhaps Pakistan has also realised it is not in their interest to have these levels of violence, which leads to the alienation of the people here,’ he added.

India and Pakistan’s territorial dispute over Kashmir has sparked two wars between the nuclear-armed South Asian rivals. Islamabad denies Indian charges that it trains and arms the insurgents operating in Indian Kashmir.

Abdullah’s comments came against the backdrop of New Delhi’s refusal to restart peace talks in the wake of the attacks on Mumbai in November last year that were blamed on a Pakistani-based militant group.