Rejecting the People's Democratic Party's demand for convening a special session of the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly to discuss human rights violations and revocation of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said his government was committed to zero tolerance of the violations, and discussions to bring about amendments in the AFSPA were in an advanced stage.
His reply came a few hours after PDP president Mehbooba Mufti shot off a letter, terming the AFSPA a “tool of repression.”
“Since its inception, the present government has been continuously striving for the amendment of the AFSPA, and it is in an advanced stage of discussion with the government of India, as a temporary measure till its complete removal,” Mr. Abdullah said in reply to the communication, which was sent in the backdrop of the killing of three Nadihal youths in a fake encounter at Macchil.
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He said the National Conference-Congress coalition government was committed to zero tolerance of human rights violations and “has a proven track record of not sparing anybody found guilty of the same.”
“I stand committed to that resolve of my government,” he said, adding the Nadihal incident was an unfortunate one.
As for the AFSPA, he said: “I do not think it is appropriate or necessary to get into a blame game on the history of invoking AFSPA in the State except to say that it is unfortunate that nothing was done about the law in the five-and-a-half years that were available to you.”?
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The Chief Minister said he found no merit in Ms. Mufti's plea for a special Assembly session on the issue.
Complaints on encounters
PTI reports from New Delhi:
Speaking to NDTV, Mr. Abdullah said people were raising questions on almost every encounter. “J&K police is flooded with such complaints, and enquiries about encounters are now going back more than five-six years and in some case even eight years,” he said.
“We have dug up bodies and verified whether these encounters are genuine or not. This has really put a lot of additional work on the already burdened police force.”