Click to play videoNew Delhi: First the army, now the Congress. Omar Abdullah's move to revoke AFSPA from some areas of Jammu and Kashmir was on Thursday questioned by Congress leader Saif-ud-din Soz who said all stakeholders including the Army should have been consulted.
He has hit out at Chief Minister Omar Abdullah for making what it calls a unilateral announcement seeking partial withdrawal of the contentious Armed Forces Act in some parts of Kashmir.
Saifuddin Soz said militancy was not over yet and any decision needs to be taken carefully. Omar Abdullah in turn, broke his silence and suggested the Home ministry was indeed on board.
Soz said, "The Chief Minister neither consulted the Defence ministry, nor Unified Command and not even the Congress despite I being the head of the coordination committee."
Omar responded, "I have exchanged notes with the union Home ministry at every step. If Soz wants to talk over the issue, he can do so even now."
In a bid to ease the tension caused by his uncle Mustafa Kamal accusing the army of plotting the two grenade attacks in Srinagar, Omar reached out by praising the Army's role in containinig militancy. But the Army, still miffed over the allegations and the rollback of AFSPA which it doesn't want, has passed the buck on to the Union Home ministry.
Army chief General VK Singh says, "It is in the purview of the Home ministry and they know what our input is." …''
And in the midst of this controversy generated over the Army Act, Omar Abdullah finds himself alone, the Home ministry from which he might have got the signal to go ahead with AFSPA roll back has surprisingly chosen to remain silent so far.
And after Omar Abdullah responded to Saifuddin Soz's attack, Soz spoke to IBN18 Editor-in-Chief Rajdeep Sardesai, accusing the Jammu and Kashmir chief minister of playing to the gallery.
"It is his style, my brother, on next occassion he will do the same thing, it is not my case that I will correct him for future. He does these kind of things. In a row he has done it. But it is a very great blunder because he is the chairman of the Unified Command and that unified command member read this in the paper," he said.
Amid talk of withdrawal of AFSPA from some areas of Jammu and Kashmir, Army Chief General V K Singh said his force has given its inputs on the issue, but refused to specify those saying the matter was under the purview of the Home Ministry.
"This (Armed Forces Special Powers Act) is within the purview of the Ministry of Home Affairs. They are debating this and we have given our inputs. I would not like to say anything more," he told reporters on the sidelines of Infantry Day celebrations here.
Asked about NC leader Mustafa Kamal's remarks that the October 25 grenade blasts in Srinagar were orchestrated by the Army, Singh said, "Whosoever has given that comment, I think that does not deserve the courtesy of any remark from me".
Army has been advocating for continuing the Act on the grounds that it needed to deal with terrorism in the state.
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah had said that the withdrawal of the Act from some districts of the state such as Srinagar, Badgam, Samba and Jammu was in no way an effort to undermine the role of the Army.
(With additional inputs from PTI)
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