The government is considering amnesty for stone-throwers, who are ready to shun violence, before Eid in the Kashmir Valley.
Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti said she has directed the State Home Department “to prepare the list of misguided youths who have been involved in various cases of violence since 2008 and were subsequently booked under criminal charges by the J&K Police.”
“My government will study these cases. We are contemplating an amnesty scheme for those youths who are willing to shun the path of violence and lead normal lives,” Ms. Mufti told the Assembly.
She said many of these youths, who are languishing in jails, “will be set free before Eid and the remaining cases will also be considered on humanitarian grounds”.
“Unlike previous governments, it is not our hobby to jail people but sometimes certain harsh steps are necessitated to prevent law and order problems,” she added.
Around 800 youths have been arrested in the Valley in 2015, of which 300 belong to Srinagar only.
The Chief Minister announced shifting of central jails out of the Srinagar and Jammu cities. Opposition National Conference (NC) leader Omar Abdullah claimed that no FIR was registered against 22 people in Jammu who vandalised public property after a sacrilegious act in a temple. “Compared to it, our youth in Srinagar wave ISIS flags or pelt stones, and they are booked. They don’t vandalise public property.”
