Time not ripe to remove AFSPA from J&K: Mehbooba
JAMMU: Chief minister Mehbooba Mufti on Friday said that the time was not apt for revoking Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) from restive Jammu and Kashmir, which has been witnessing a spurt in attacks on security and police forces.
Mehbooba, who minced no words, was once a strong votary to the revocation of the ‘controversial’ law.
Replying on grants of home, planning and general administration department on the floor of lower house on Friday evening, she said, “We also want AFSPA to go away and reduce the footprints of security forces but does the present situation allow us to do so when hundreds of people attack security forces.”
“In a striking contrast to the past when people fled villages where an encounter used to take place, today people from four to five villages converge at the encounter site and pelt stones at the forces. Is it realistic at this point of time and under such a disturbed situation to remove AFSPA?” she asked the opposition.
“More the incidents of stone pelting, more will be the footprints of security forces. You understand that. It is a bitter truth. The moment you remove bunker, something (unlawful) starts happening… this is a vicious cycle but it is our joint issue,” she said.
On alleged rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl from a nomadic tribe in Kathua, she said that the FIR stands lodged and crime branch was probing the case. “It was a heart wrenching incident. I do not even want to think about that child.. the trauma she went through.. It is very unfortunate that it happened in our state but I promise stern punishment to guilty,” she asserted.
Meanwhile, on Omar’s claims of counter FIR by army in Shopian, she said that the army filed its version of the incident and they had a right to do so.
“We have to listen to both sides before taking any action, she said,” the J&K CM said.
She further said, “I would like to say on record that the Army is the most disciplined force in the world. It is an institution. However, if someone commits a mistake, the law is there.”