STATE TIMES NEWS
SRINAGAR: “I feel intensely that if Government of India wants to respond to the grim situation created by the forces in which fifty precious lives were lost and hundreds got wounded, then, the first step would be to scrap AFSPA from the entire State of Jammu and Kashmir”, said senior Congress leader Saifuddin Soz.
He said that AFSPA is a draconian law and it has mostly been misused in the State.
“The armed forces and para-forces have laws available to check violence of all kinds. The AFSPA only provides immunity to forces for not being accountable for any of their actions, at all”, he added.
“As a citizen, I felt amazed when senior functionaries of the Government of India, committed recently that they would explore the possibility of using lesser lethal weapons than pellet-guns, as this assertion pre-supposes that they have only to fight. They also, perhaps, meant that central government has nothing to do in the realm of Insaniyat”, he pointed out adding that if Government of India take the suggested first step i.e. removal of AFSPA, which might create the possibility of a dialogue with the ‘Opinion Leaders’ in Kashmir.