Sopore (Jammu and Kashmir): Day after Union Home Minister Amit Shah said that the government is mulling to revoke Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) from the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir, former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister and NC Vice President Omar Abdullah has said that the Centre had no plans to revoke it.
“Don't be in the misunderstanding that the Home Minister said that AFSPA will be revoked from Kashmir. The home minister said they will think about it. It is sad that the Centre remembers it now,” Omar said while speaking to the media on the sidelines of a party convention in north Kashmir's Sopore on Thursday March 28.
The NC Vice President said that he had apprehensions that the people of Kashmir “will be deceived the same way like Ladakhis who were promised about the sixth schedule”. They were promised about the Sixth Schedule before the Hill Development Council,” he said.
The political leaders in Ladakh are currently protesting to demand statehood and other constitutional guarantees under the Sixth Schedule.
Omar claimed that the ruling BJP will draw a blank in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. “Parliament elections will be held, BJP will draw a blank on five Lok Sabha seats in Jammu and Kashmir and they will forget about AFSPA,” he said.
The National Conference (NC) vice president Omar Abdullah Thursday accused BJP leader Gen (retd) V K Singh of sabotaging the revocation of AFSPA during the UPA-2 government when he was the Army chief.
"The home minister remembers AFSPA now. I fought for it (revocation of AFSPA) since 2011 when I was the chief minister. Where did its opposition come from? It was Gen V K Singh, who was his ministerial colleague, and who was the chief of armed staff when I was the chief minister.
"Shah sahab, ask him (Singh) why did he stop the process to revoke AFSPA. Why did he sabotage it then? Why did he say that the Army will not accept it? Today, you are fooling the people that you will revoke AFSPA," Abdullah said, addressing the party workers here in north Kashmir's Baramulla district.
Pertinently, the Armed Forces Special Powers Act gives unbridled powers to search, arrest and to open fire to "maintain public order." (With agency inputs)
