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Kamal ends ‘unilateral verbal ceasefire’
KT NEWS SRVICE. Dated: 4/29/2013 12:39:59 AM
‘Army hurdle on AFSPA issue’
SRINAGAR, April 28 : After several days of his “unilateral verbal cease-fire”, National Conference (NC) leader Dr Mustafa Kamal today again trained his guns at army describing “it as the only hurdle in the revocation of AFPSA.”
“Army is creating hurdles in revocation of AFSPA. If there is a hurdle in way of revoking the draconian law, it is only the Army. They do not want peace in Kashmir for obvious reasons. If army wants peace in Kashmir then they should not oppose the revocation,” said Kamal, additional general secretary of NC.
He accused the army of trying to scuttle the revocation of the act to save its troops from accountability. “Army and defence ministry are actually aware that if this law is removed from the scene they will be held answerable for the excesses they have committed on the people of the state,” Kamal claimed.
He demanded immediate revocation of AFSPA from the ‘peaceful areas’ of the state. “If the army claims that peace has returned to the Valley, then why do they oppose its revocation,” NC leader asked and added that “Militants can strike with or without AFSPA so it is wrong to say AFSPA is necessary to maintain peace in the state.”
However, the NC leader said that the NC-Congress coalition government would continue to make efforts for the revocation of AFSPA from the state.
Meanwhile, Member of Parliament and senior National Conference leader, Dr Mehboob Beg, said that by not considering partial revocation of Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) from the state, the central government was “justifying the stand of separatists and strengthening the hands of hardliners.”
“It is really a matter of concern that despite various security agencies in their reports clearly stating that the situation has improved a lot and graph of militancy has drastically come down, the Union Home Ministry instead of taking some concrete steps to repeal the AFSPA is talking of amendments in the Act being under the consideration of Cabinet Committee for Security (CCS),” said Beg.