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Friday, Feb 27, 2009
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Omar hints at Armed Forces Act withdrawal

Shujaat Bukhari

JAMMU: Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said on Thursday that if the situation in the State continued to improve the way as in the recent past, the coalition government would withdraw laws such as the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) and the Disturbed Areas Act.

“Those responsible for the killing of innocent people will be handed down exemplary punishment,” he said.

Mr. Abdullah was replying to a discussion on an adjournment motion moved by the National Conference (NC) and the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) on the Bomai firing incident in which two youths were killed on February 21.

Claiming that this was the first time a time-bound enquiry was ordered into this kind of an incident, he pointed out that inquiries ordered in the past were either stalled or moved at a snail’s pace.

Bomai incident report

“I don’t require inquiries that take years to submit a report by which time people would have forgotten the incident.”

The report on the Bomai incident would be made public as soon as the Inquiry Officer submitted it. The source on whose information action was taken in the Bomai incident was in the custody of the police and facts were being collected.

It was unfortunate that the Standing Operating Procedure, under which the police had to accompany the security forces when actionable information was received, was not followed in this case.

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