TOUGH emergency laws in place for more than 20 years in Kashmir are to be withdrawn in some areas as violence wanes, the chief minister said today.
The Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), a source of resentment among Kashmiris and widely criticised by human rights groups, gives security forces sweeping powers to detain people, use deadly force and destroy property.
It has been in force since 1990 across Kashmir, where a waning 20-year insurgency against rule from New Delhi has cost tens of thousands of lives.
“(The) Time has come for the revocation of laws which were implemented in the state after the onset of militancy,” Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah told a police function in Srinagar.
“These laws will be revoked from some areas of the state within next few days,” he said, without specifying where.
Police sources told reporters there would be six districts affected by the change, including the summer capital Srinagar and winter capital Jammu, but the law would remain in place near the de facto border with Pakistan that divides the region.
Abdullah wrote on his Twitter account that “for some it’ll be too much, for others not enough, but the way I see it, it will be a significant beginning, however small.”
AFSPA means soldiers cannot be prosecuted unless the Indian government gives prior sanction.
Senior figures in the Indian army have spoken against relaxing security laws in Kashmir, saying any move would hamper their ability to find and kill militants, who still launch occasional attacks.
Earlier this year, UN special rapporteur Margaret Sekaggya demanded the Indian government repeal the AFSPA.
Militant violence has dropped sharply in Kashmir since India and Pakistan, which each hold the region in part but claim it in full, started a peace process in 2004.
