Ahead of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to Kashmir, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has raised a question mark over recent “encounter killings” by security forces in the state and made a strong pitch for changes in the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) to make it more transparent.
“Obviously there would be doubts. This is the problem when a handful of people for their short—term gains are willing to sacrifice the long-term interests of not only forces they represent but that of everybody else,” he told NDTV .
He was asked whether there were doubts about recent encounters involving security forces along the Line of Control (LoC).
The army had on April 30 said they had killed three unidentified infiltrators in Machhil sector along the LoC.
However, relatives alleged that the three were youths who were missing since April 27, following which a territorial army jawan and two others were arrested.
“Obviously there will be serious repercussions and doubts will emerge. J and 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,” Mr. Abdullah 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 because a whole host of questions are being asked about these encounters,” he said.
He said every complaint that has been made to the police after the Machhil encounter, they have looked into it and “have satisfied the complainants that whatever deaths have so far taken place other than the Machhil one have been the result of genuine encounters.”
Asked whether there was still a question mark over some other encounters and that is why he was saying that those will have to be verified, Mr. Abdullah said, “I am saying that almost every encounter, unfortunately, that has taken place now has question marks being posed by people and it is our duty to address those questions.”
The Prime Minister is scheduled to undertake a two-day visit to Kashmir from June 7 during which he is expected to renew the offer for talks with separatists and review the progress on the Round Table peace initiative.
This will be Singh’s second visit to the Kashmir valley in the first year of his second term in office. He was in Srinagar last October.
Mr. Abdullah said that Dr. Singh will be going with a comprehensive agenda of development and progress. “I am sure there will be a political element built into his agenda as well.”
On people’s expectations from the visit, the Chief Minister said they will seek some sort of indication on Centre’s intention to kickstart the stalled dialogue between Delhi and mainstream political voices as also other players.
Asked about Army personnel being indicted for their involvement in alleged fake encounters, Abdullah said the biggest problem in these cases was absence of transparency.
“Unfortunately, because of the AFSPA because it is built for the armed forces, Army is the judge, jury and the hangman. Therefore, there is absence of transparency as a result of which people have lost faith in the system,” he said.
The Chief Minister said people do not believe that justice would be done and that is why such reactions to the AFSPA and the armed forces take place.
Mr. Abdullah said while the AFSPA was required, “it needs to be amended so that it is more transparent, more accountable and people have more faith in the system.”
Asked whether the “quiet dialogue” initiated by Home Minister P. Chidamabaram with a section of separatists had not been handled well, he said, “I don’t think that it was Delhi’s fault that the quiet dialogue didn’t remain quiet.”
“I think concerted efforts were made in certain quarters throughout the dialogue process and that is what it fell victim to,” Mr. Abdullah said.
He said attempts at reaching out to certain sections of the Hurriyat Conference using back channels were continuing and hoped these efforts would realise “the results we all hope for.”
