Current Matters
Jammu, June 26: Minister for Defence, Rajnath Singh has said that Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) from Jammu and Kashmir will have to go eventually but he didn’t give any date of its revocation.
He linked its revocation with establishing permanent peace in the union territory.
Singh was in Jammu to deliver a keynote address at a ‘National Security Conclave’ and he spoke in length about several issues including Pakistan and AFSPA.
In his address, Rajnath Singh said, “Like major parts of northeast where peace has returned and AFSPA was revoked, I want to see the day when Jammu and Kashmir also attains permanent peace and AFSPA is revoked.”
“We have been able to deal with the problem of insurgency in northeast and controlling left-wing extremism, which resulted in removing AFSPA. I am waiting for the day when permanent peace will come in Jammu and Kashmir and AFSPA will be removed from here too.”
AFSPA gives special powers to security forces to take action against people involved in militancy related incidents and don’t face any legal action.
There has been a demand from Kashmir-centric political parties in the past to remove AFSPA but due to continuous presence of militants and violence, no decision was taken of its removal. For the past few years, there was no talk about AFSPA and suddenly today Defence Minister talked about this.
Meanwhile, Rajnath Singh lashed out on Pakistan for raising question on non-inclusion of Kashmir in a joint statement of US President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Narendra Modi which asked Pakistan to take immediate action against terror network and stop allowing areas under its control to become terror launch pads.
Singh, rather, advised Pakistan to manage its own internal affairs. “Pakistan Ko Mirchi Lagi (Pakistan was not been happy). It was rather evident for them to feel the heat and react the way they have. But Pakistan should introspect and correct its wrongdoings,” he added.
