SRINAGAR - India is to phase out the controversial presence of large numbers of its troops in towns across the Muslim-majority Kashmir region, the country's home minister announced Friday.

Such a move would be the first time the massive armed force has been pulled out of urban areas in the disputed region since an insurgency against Indian rule broke out in 1989.

The announcement comes amid sustained protests over last month's alleged rape and murder of two local Muslim women by members of the Indian security forces.

Home Minister P. Chidambaran told a news conference in Srinagar, where he has been conducting an urgent review of the security situation, that the army should carry out counter-insurgency operations "far away from towns and cities."

"In the inhabited areas we believe maintaining law and order is the primary responsibility of the state police," he told reporters.

He did not give a timetable for the redeployment of troops, but said: "It will take some time. That is the direction in which we have agreed to move and we will move."