Ansari praises Shah, welcomes his statement
Fayaz Bukhari
SRINAGAR, Mar 28: National Conference (NC) vice president Omar Abdullah today accused former Army chief General (retd) V K Singh and Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) leader of sabotaging the revocation of AFSPA during the UPA-2 Government.
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While addressing party workers in the Sopore area of North Kashmir’s Baramulla district, Omar said that he had been fighting for the revocation of AFSPA since 2011. “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 chief of Army staff when I was the Chief Minister,” he said.
The NC leader said that Home Minster is befooling people on AFSPA. “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 befooling the people that you will revoke AFSPA,” he said.
Omar said the HM should first ease the public movement on Srinagar-Jammu National Highway. “We will see about the AFSPA later, but at least ease the movement of people on the highway and we will be grateful to you for that. As for now, stop the Army men from stopping our vehicles, harassing us on the highway when convoys pass through. Then we will accept that you can revoke AFSPA,” he added.
He said Shah should start by releasing prisoners from J&K who are languishing in different jails across the country. “Many of our youth are in jails outside the State. Release them first,” he said.
“They have started a new process now of forcing the children and grandchildren of separatists to publish advertisements in newspapers. You are repeating the era of which we have faced the brunt when our and Congress workers were forced to quit politics by announcing in newspapers,” he said.
He was referring to the public notices published in the newspapers recently in which Ruwa Shah, granddaughter of Syed Ali Shah Geelani, and Sama Shabir, the elder daughter of Shabir Shah, owed an allegiance to the sovereignty of the country.
Meanwhile, Peoples Conference senior leader, Imran Reza Ansari, today welcomed the Statement of Home Minster on AFSPA.
“We welcome it and this is a big thing. If AFSPA is revoked, people will heave a sigh of relief. We should congratulate Home Minister Amit Shah as he acknowledged that this was draconian law,” he said.
“I watched Shah’s interview and I saw a lot of positivity in it. He feels that Kashmir has not progressed in the last 40 years. I feel he wants Kashmiris to govern Kashmir,” he said.
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