AFSPA revocation, mention not!

Though recent attacks on police in Kashmir are disturbing both for the Mehbooba led PDP-BJP coalition government in Jammu & Kashmir and Narendra Modi led BJP Government at the centre, but needlessly the attacks are blown out of proportion to the extent of weakening the resolve of Mehbooba Muft led PDP part of the coalition government to review the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA). The silence of Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti on AFSPA revocation at the recent public rally in Kulgam is a pointer to this fact. In her address to the Kulgam rally Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti asked people to give her peace for the opening of travel trade routes between the divided parts of Jammu & Kashmir but she did not mention even a single word about her party’s commitment on the revocation of Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) as if her party has dropped the commitment on AFSPA revocation from the core political agenda. Knowing that revocation of AFSPA would end the impunity the army and central paramilitary forces have in Kashmir the Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti can’t deny the fact that she owes an explanation to the people on the AFSPA revocation which till the formation of a coalition government with BJP in the year 2015 was on the core political agenda of her party. While the state government presently commanded and controlled by Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti has to take up the issue of AFSPA revocation directly with the central government for final settlement, the issue of opening up more travel and trade routes between divided parts of Jammu & Kashmir on which the Chief Minister has laid emphasis can’t be settled without resumption of Indo-Pak bilateral dialogue. Since Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti has been persistently claiming that both the state and the central governments are on the same page on the measures taken to restore peace and normalcy in Jammu & Kashmir, So obviously Chief Minister should have no difficulty in taking up the issue of AFSPA revocation for final settlement with the central government. As rising public anger in valley against the disproportionate use of force by army police and paramilitaries in much hyped cordon and search operations (CASO) , the AFSPA revocation could by all standards of understandabilities bring down the rising tempers in Kashmir proving detrimental for stabilization of peace and security in the entire Jammu & Kashmir state.
Since the undeniable fact is that the disproportionate use of force allowed by the draconian laws like Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA)is the cause of growing alienation in Kashmir, Sot both the state and the central governments claiming to be on the same page on measures concerning peace and security in Jammu & Kashmir should have no difficulty to work for finding a common ground on AFSPA revocation. True that attacks like the recent ones carried out in Srinagar and Jammu have put enormous public pressure on both the state and the central governments, but it is for the Modi Government in Delhi and Mehbooba government in Jammu & Kashmir to work for finding a common ground on AFSPA revocation to further the causes of the stability of peace and security in Jammu & Kashmir state.