Government of India to ‘moderate’ AFSPA in Kashmir

Only Kashmir News Desk
New Delhi, Jan 11 (Only Kashmir): The Narender Modi led Government of India is moderating the controversial law Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) in Kashmir for which several rounds of high-level discussions have taken place between the Defence and Home ministries in New Delhi. The move is seen as backdrop of the recommendations of interlocutor Dineshwar Sharma.
According to the reliable sources, the Government of India following the recommendations of interlocutor Dineshwar Sharma is re-examining the controversial law AFSPA in Kashmir.



“Several rounds of high-level discussions have taken place between the defence and home ministries, according to sources, on the “need for removing or diluting some provisions” of the AFSPA in line with the Supreme Court’s judgments on “extra-judicial killings” and expert committee recommendations over the years,” reported a prominent national daily.
“The discussions have mainly been around Section 4 and 7 of the Act which are the ones that accord far-reaching powers and legal safeguards to the security forces as they undertake terror operations,” reads the report.
Pertinently, all the mainstream parties in Jammu and Kashmir including National Conference, Peoples Democratic Party, when in opposition time and again are demanding the scrapping of AFSPA.
The Hurriyat leaders have called the act “black law” which according to them is a license to kill any civilian in Kashmir.
Latest statistics show that the Centre rejected sanctioning the J&K government’s prosecution of military personnel in 47 of the 50 cases submitted since 2001.
The central government, starting 2001, received 50 cases from the Jammu and Kashmir government for sanction of prosecution of armed forces under the Armed Forces (Jammu and Kashmir) Special Powers Act (AFSPA), the ministry of defence told the Parliament recently. (OK)