STATE TIMES NEWS
Jammu: Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti on Monday linked the revocation of the controversial Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) to improvement in law and order situation and success of security forces in ending terrorism in the state.
The success of the security forces depends upon when we will start revoking Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA).
“It also depends upon when we stomp out terrorism fully and slowly and steadily decrease the footprints of security forces. It will not be our success first, it will be the success of the security forces, she said in her address to Legislative Council here on Monday.
Mehbooba went on to add, “If we can control infiltration and militancy in the state, then we can start revoking AFSPA.
Time is nearing by when this will start happening. This has been agreed in the Agenda of Alliance (between ruling coalition partners PDP and BJP).”
She said it has been agreed in the Working Group that whenever the security situation becomes conducive, the laws applicable with regard to security will be automatically revoked, she said.
When the elections take place and democracy is put in place, footprints of the security apparatus automatically gets downgraded. See when the militancy started in 1990s, how many camps were there which you did not see in 2002 and today they are not there. Decreasing the footprints of security forces is in the Agenda of Alliance of our government,” she said.
Emphasising the need for dialogue, Mehbooba said her late father and former Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed had believed that the problem of Jammu and Kashmir is “a war of idea”.
“You cannot put an idea into jail. You cannot kill an idea. You need to deal with idea. You need to deal with idea with another idea. If some people say they have to go for freedom or with Pakistan, we tell them that there is huge accommodation in the Constitutions of Jammu and Kashmir and India which can fulfill the dream of freedom within its ambit,” she said.
“We need to open up more roads between the two sides of Kashmir,” she said.
Noting that China is building economic corridor in PoK, she said “we also need to take a call to build such a corridor via Kashmir, Jammu or Ladakh. That is why we are batting for holding dialogue and we believe that dialogue is the only way and we need to create an atmosphere for this.”
Jammu: The government has to “heal the wounds” of youth and bring the misguided people back to the mainstream, Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti said on Monday while announcing that her government will decide on a rehabilitation of those affected during last year’s unrest in the Valley.
“We are here to heal the wounds of the youth. Paying them a compensation of Rs 5 lakh is nothing as the loss of life can never be compensated,” she said while replying to a discussion in the Legislative Council on the Motion of Thanks to the Governor’s Address.
We have come out to heal the wounds of the people and we will decide here and it (rehabilitation) is we who have to decide it here as we have to live in Jammu and Kashmir,” Mehbooba said.
“We have to heal the wounds of these children. We have to bring them back (to mainstream), she said.
She spoke on the issue as the Opposition parties National Conference and Congress created ruckus in the Assembly, asking the government to clarify whether it would pay a compensation of Rs 5 lakh each to the next of kin of those killed during last year’s Kashmir unrest since PDP ally BJP is apparently not in its favour.
Union Minister and senior BJP leader Jitendra Singh had said on Sunday that the state government should not take any steps which would demoralise the nationalistic forces and encourage people who work against the national interest.
Speaking in the state Assembly on January 9, the Chief Minister had said, “They are our own children and we have to ensure their rehabilitation.
We have kept an amount of Rs 5 lakh ex-gratia as compensation for the next of kin in case of deaths.”
In the Council, Mehbooba further said “there were some families who have lost their dear ones and we have to rehabilitate some of them like (lecturer) Latoo (who was killed in an operation by security forces)…. Like this lecturer, who lost his life, his wife was dependent and is facing difficult times. If we cannot give her job who else will?
CM slams those opposing return of KPs
Jammu: Slamming those opposed to setting up of transit accommodation for Kashmiri Pandits in the valley, Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti on Monday questioned how the return of “our people” could bring about a demographic change.
They (separatists and others opposed) are saying that if the Kashmiri Pandits comes back it will be demographic change. How is it a demographic change?
“Those who have taught us, lived and grown up with us and in whose homes we used to eat food and those who are an inseparable part of our culture, what demographic change will there be if they return back to Kashmir? I fail to understand this logic, Mehbooba said while winding up the discussion on Motion of Thanks to the Governor s Address in Legislative Council here.
Though she did not name any party or group, Mehbooba was clearly referring to the separatists and some mainstream political parties which are opposing setting up of transit accommodation for Kashmiri pandits as part of their return to the Valley from which they were forced out in 1990.
Our people want to come back and we say this is demographic change. They want to live in transit accommodation and we say that this is demographic change. This is absolutely wrong. It is not Kashmiriyat. And the true spirits of the real Kashmiriyat need to be revived again in the Valley.
“We need to work unitedly and together for this cause and without it there is no alternative, Mehbooba said.
She said during the past 25-30 years, “we have suffered huge loss of lives and property in the turmoil. The composite culture has received a setback. The composite culture of the tolling of bells of temple (on Hari Parbat hills) and prayers at Makhdoom Sahib s Ziarat and the ‘path’ (Sikh prayers) from the Gurudwara I don t know what has happened to this culture. An unpredictable atmosphere has been created.”
The Chief Minister said Jammu has become an example of Kashmiriyat as it has provided a home to all the people of Kashmir, including Kashmiri Pandits, Kashmir Muslims and Kashmiri Sikhs.
I feel that Jammu has become Kashmir today (with regard to composite culture) and Kashmir has reached somewhere else.
In Kashmir, Kashmiris do not have any sign of happiness on their faces, but when they reach Jammu, I feel they are alive.
The people of Jammu have adopted the true culture of Kashmir (Kashmiriyat), she said.
But when the government talks about taking back Kashmiri Pandits to Valley and honourably rehabilitating them there, then an issue has been created,” she said.
“Forget about others even the mainstream people talk about demographic change. We should stop raking up the issue of demographic changes repeatedly. It is not Kashmiriyat,” the Chief Minister said.
She said such things may be happening in Afghanistan, Syria and in Iraq, where guns rule the roost “but this is not the culture of our Kashmir”.
“We need to find out solution to this issue from this House only,” the Chief Minister said about the Kashmiri Pandit rehabilitation issue.
On the issue of Article 370, which grants special status to Jammu and Kashmir, she said there is a need to understand its “depth”.
“We should not think it is a word written on the piece of paper but go into the depth to understand its ascents. Article 370 is not only about securing the special status of Jammu and Kashmir but it is more about securing our culture, brotherhood and heritage,” Mehbooba.
Article 370 is close to our chest but the soul of Article 370 is safeguarding the individuality cultural heritage, brotherhood in the state,” she said.
She said Mahatma Gandhi had seen a ray of hope in Kashmir when the entire sub-continent was in flames in 1947 “but that ray is now seen rarely.
The soul of Kashmiriyat which is being protected by Article 370 has been lost somewhere in Kashmir and this Kashmiriyat is seen in the streets of Jammu.”
