“Clearing these high-altitude hideouts would mean a large-scale offensive in the mountains: an enterprise involving more troops than the Srinagar-based XV Corps and Nagrota-based XVI have readily available. Although critics ofIndia's counter-terrorism posture in J&K often represent the state as a garrison, the reality is somewhat less dramatic. Of the 337,000 Indian troops in J&K, almost half are committed to counter-infiltration and defensive tasks along thestate's frontiers with Pakistan and China. Another 100,000 are tied up by administrative duties and the enormous logistical chain which links the Himalayas with the plains, leaving only 80,000 troops free for counter-terrorist operations--a force roughly the same size as the J&K Police.”
A little more perspective on why cutting manpower was a strategic failure on the parrr of the Indian Army upper brass