Authorities in Indian-Kashmir plan to partially withdraw controversial laws that allow security forces to act with near impunity in the disputed Himalayan region.

The Armed Forces Special Powers Act and the Disturbed Areas Act give Indian army and paramilitary forces sweeping powers to detain people without warrants, use deadly force and destroy property.

On Friday, Kashmir's Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said that the laws will be revoked in some areas of the region within the next few days. He did not specify where.

Abdullah told a gathering of police officers in Kashmir's main city of Srinagar that as the situation improves and violence ebbs in other parts of Kashmir, the laws will be withdrawn from the entire region.

Kashmir is divided between India and Pakistan and claimed in full by both countries.

Muslim separatists have been fighting for independence from Hindu-majority India or a merger with Muslim-majority Pakistan. Thousands have been killed in the more than 20-year insurgency.

Indian security forces have used the laws to target militancy, but rights groups say troops routinely abuse their powers.

Earlier this month, Human Rights Watch said armed forces routinely engage in torture and other ill-treatment during interrogations, and that soldiers cannot be prosecuted without approval from the central government, which is rarely granted.

The New York-based rights group says the Armed Forces Special Powers Act violates India's obligations under international human rights law, including the rights to life, to be protected from arbitrary arrest, and to be free from torture and other ill-treatment.

The law was enacted in August 1958 as an emergency measure to allow the deployment of the army to counter a separatist movement in the northeastern Naga Hills. But it has remained in force in several northeastern states since 1958, and in Jammu and Kashmir since 1990.