Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Jan 29: Former Union Minister Prof Saifuddin Soz today said that Armed Forces Special Power Act (AFSPA) is the biggest sources of alienation and unrest in Kashmir.
“Unfortunately for the Union of India, there has hardly been any exercise to understand the level of alienation of Kashmiris, deepened by the AFSPA, which has been in existence for the last 28 years,” he said in a statement, issued here today.
Also referring about the chief of Army Staff Gen Bipin Rawat’s purported statement that the time has not come to think of even amending certain provisions of AFSPA, not to speak of its revocation, Prof Soz alleged that the Army chief wanted the cup of alienation of Kashmir to rise to the brim as if it was not at the brim already.
The former Union Minister and Congress leader claimed that the then Home Minister, P Chidambaram had tried to convince his colleagues during UPA-II that this draconian law had promoted alienation in Kashmir and had led to spells of unrest, which the forces had always found impossible to quell!
Suggesting the Government of India to allow Kashmiris to express their suppressed feelings democratically, Prof Soz said that the unfortunate incident at Shopian, the other day, when AFSPA claimed two innocent lives was by no means a feather in Army’s cap.
“The general run of Kashmiris should also ponder over why the ‘saviours’ in the mainstream Kashmir were vociferous recently on proper time to hold Panchayat elections,” he further said.
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