UNION Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said on Monday that the controversial Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) will be repealed from Jammu and Kashmir once peace is firmly established in the region. Speaking at a security conclave in Jammu, Singh highlighted the successful containment of insurgency in the North East and the removal of AFSPA from substantial parts of the region. While he refrained from providing a specific timeline, the minister hoped that the day will not be far when the law will be withdrawn from J&K too.
The AFSPA, enacted in 1958, grants extensive powers to the armed forces in areas declared as “disturbed.” While it was introduced with the intention of maintaining security in regions grappling with militancy, it has been a subject of debate and criticism due to alleged human rights excesses committed under its purview.
In J&K, the withdrawal of the AFSPA has been a longstanding debate but ultimately it has gone nowhere as the defense ministry has shown itself disinclined to do away with it. But contrary to the official narrative, Kashmir has come a long way since 2019. The region has witnessed an incremental decline not only in militancy but also a decrease in the influx of the Pakistani militants. More than 500 militants have been killed, most of them local youth and hailing from South Kashmir. This has considerably thinned the footprint of militancy in the area helping restore some uneasy normalcy. Pakistan, believed to be forced by its ongoing economic hardships and international pressure, has cracked down on the leaders of Kashmir centric militant groups like Lashkar and Jaish-e-Mohammad.
However, it is very unlikely that the demand for the withdrawal of the AFSPA from J&K will find any traction at the national level where a near political consensus exists about the continuation of the law in the region which is seen as necessary to reign in the militancy.
The law gives the army and the paramilitary forces sweeping powers to conduct their operations as “under this Act, no prosecution, suit or other legal proceeding shall be instituted,” against the security personnel acting in good faith in the line of duty. And it is these grounds that the Valley politicians have tapped into to often fashion a political narrative for the phase-wise rollback of the law. The rationale of the defense forces is that they cannot operate freely without the AFSPA in a conflict zone like Kashmir. And the centre is least likely to overlook the opinion of the armed forces on security, more so, in a place like Kashmir. But a clear roadmap outlining the conditions and benchmarks necessary for the revocation of AFSPA would provide hope to the people of J&K and demonstrate its responsiveness to their longstanding grievances against the law.
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