Thaindian News

Srinagar, Nov 11 (IANS) The revocation of the controversial Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) from Jammu and Kashmir is inevitable, former chief minister Mufti Muhammad Sayeed, the patron of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), said Friday.

Addressing party workers in summer capital Srinagar Friday, he said: “Stringent and exceptional measures like the AFSPA are unsustainable in the changed internal scenario in the state where signs of improved situation are visible for everybody to see.”

He also referred to the improvement in the relations between India and Pakistan.

Sayeed said the people of the state needed to be given a fair share in the improved overall law and order situation so that they finally become the real guarantors of peace.

The PDP patron disclosed he had taken up the issue of AFSPA revocation with the prime minister when he was chief minister, but regretted that the subsequent state government had failed to carry out the follow up action.

Sayeed alleged that Omar Abdullah “had lowered the status and the position of the chief minister by his mishandling of an important issue like the revocation of AFSPA”.

Sayeed said Omar Abdullah had engaged himself in a futile confrontation over an issue which the state should have been able to handle in a more matured manner.

“Instead of taking the state legislature into confidence, the chief minister has turned it into a mudslinging match between himself and the armed forces,” Sayeed alleged.

Sayeed said the army had completed its job in very trying circumstances and helped in creating a situation conducive for political activity and democratic functioning and the time had come when democratic institutions needed to be fully established here.