PC: Mulling 3 AFSPA amendments
Union home minister P. Chidambaram said on Tuesday that his ministry has proposed three amendments to the controversial Armed Forces (Special) Powers Act which are currently under the consideration of the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS).
Mr Chidambaram, who was on a day-long visit to Jammu and Kashmir where various political parties including National Conference (NC), the coalition partner of Congress, and human rights groups have been demanding revocation of the emergency laws including AFSPA in force in the state for over two decades, however, refused to elaborate on the nature of the amendments.
The home minister told reporters that the report of the Centre’s interlocutors on Kashmir would be made public after CCS considers it. “The interlocutors’ report, as I said in Delhi, will be made public after the CCS has considered the matter”, he said, again refusing to take further questions on the issue. He spent a hectic day in Jammu and Kashmir’s winter capital Jammu holding a series of close-door meetings with senior state government functionaries to review the routine law and order situation and over all security scenario in the state.
However, it was this year’s Amarnath pilgrimage and the arrangements being put in place for the event which is expected to attract more than half a million devotees from across the country and abroad which dominated the discussion at a high level meeting, Besides chief minister Omar Abdullah, the meeting was attended by his deputy Tara Chand, minister of state for home Nasir Aslam Wani and a host of senior government and security forces officials, including chief secretary Madhav Lal and director general police Kuldeep Khoda. Union joint secretary (Kashmir) in MHA, K. Skandan, additional director IB, Rajeev Kapur, special director general CRPF (NZ) J&K, officer on special duty to the home minister Ajay Kumar and regional heads of various central police and paramilitary forces were present.
It is learnt that the MHA has agreed to the proposal of removing more CRPF bunkers and pillboxes from urban areas of the Valley following improvement in the law and order situation.
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