On the controversy surrounding demand for withdrawal of Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram on Wednesday said that Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah ``wants to denotify some areas which were originally notified as disturbed areas’’ so that AFSPA could be removed from such areas.
Replying to questions after presenting the monthly report of Home Ministry for November, he pointed out that the decision to denotify areas from Disturbed Areas Act would be taken by the State Governor on the advice of the State government.
The efforts of the Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister, he said, were in pursuant to a decision of the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) which requested him to review the matter in the Unified HQs. He said the Chief Minister’s proposal was to denotify those areas as disturbed areas where Army was not deployed.
On the report submitted by the government-appointed interlocutors -- Dileep Padgaonkar, Radha Kumar and M M Ansari -- on Jammu and Kashmir, Mr. Chidambaram said the report was a ``practical roadmap’’ and suggests a way forward to find a solution to the political issues that have been in Jammu and Kashmir for many years.
``We are considering the report. I have already briefed the members of CCS once. They have asked for a fuller briefing. We are trying to schedule another meeting of CCS. Once the full briefing is done to CCS, it will decide to make the report public. The report will be made public,’’ the Home Minister said.
On Pakistan’s efforts in unravelling the conspiracy behind 26/11 Mumbai terror attack, Mr. Chidambaram said the fact was that Pakistan has not supplied voice samples to India and it has also not arrested the ``true perpetrators’’ of 26/11 terror attack.
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