Jammu and Kashmir leaders sceptic as Centre mull AFSPA rollback

Prompting reactions from Jammu and Kashmir leaders, Union home minister Amit Shah on Tuesday said the Centre will consider revoking the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act in the UT and has plans to pull back troops from region,

“We have plans to pull back troops and leave law and order to the Jammu and Kashmir Police alone. Earlier, the Jammu and Kashmir police was not trusted but today they are leading the operations,” Shah said in a recent television interview.

The AFSPA gives the armed forces personnel deployed in disturbed areas powers to search, arrest and to open fire if they deem it necessary to maintain peace. Its removal will make way for the Jammu and Kashmir Police to look after the law-and-order alone.

Former J&K chief ministers (CM), however, remain sceptical of the statement.

Dubbing the statement “better late than never”, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president and former CM Mehbooba Mufti expressed hope that the Centre would follow through on the talk. “PDP has consistently demanded the revocation of draconian AFSPA along with a gradual removal of troops. It also formulated an important part of our Agenda of Alliance wholeheartedly agreed upon by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP),” Mufti wrote on X.

Another former CM, National Conference vice-president Omar Abdullah was more wary of the statement, saying it could just be a BJP ploy to lure voters ahead of the Lok Sabha polls. “They (BJP government) should do it right now. When they say the situation is normal, militancy has ended here and now no separatist thought is here,” Abdullah told reporters on the sidelines of a function in Budgam.

Notably, the idea to revoke AFSPA has been floated by the BJP before, while it was also discussed during both Mufti and Abdullah’s tenures as CMs. Security officials, however, had opposed the move at the time.

Peoples Conference chairperson Sajjad Lone was more welcoming of the statement, deeming the idea an “excellent” step.

Jammu and Kashmir former director general of police SP Vaid also welcomed the statement, saying, “The home minister’s announcement of the government considering withdrawal of AFSPA in phases from Jammu and Kashmir is a move welcomed by everyone. This will go down extremely positively among the people. Let the dividends of peace reach the last man, keeping in view the tremendous improvement in the security situation never seen before.”

He substantiated his statement by citing zero incidents of stone pelting and zero hartals in Kashmir. “Similarly, there is no terrorist movement, infiltration is down, terror incidents are down and the killings of civilians and security personnel have also reduced,” he said.

BJP govt ended militancy: Anurag Thakur

Union minister Anurag Thakur, meanwhile, credited the BJP-led central government for having ended militancy, saying AFSPA was no longer needed in Jammu and Kashmir.

Fielding media queries at Udhampur, Thakur said, “Congress was the party that gave militancy and also implemented Article 370 and 35-A in Jammu and Kashmir. And, today when BJP has ended militancy and there is no need to fight suits in the courts, we can also remove AFSPA.”

Thakur said the protracted militancy in Jammu and Kashmir had earlier given sad and despondent faces but today those faces have started smiling.

The AFPSA had been announced on July 5, 1990, and implemented in Jammu and Kashmir on September 5 that year.