New Delhi, Oct 7 (IANS) The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) will not involve itself in any controversy on the withdrawal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) in Kashmir, the new CRPF chief K. Vijay Kumar said Thursday.
‘It is a matter to be decided by the higher-ups in the union home ministry and other leaders,’ Vijay Kumar told reporters here.
Kashmir’s ruling National Conference and opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP) have been demanding the withdrawal of the AFSPA, at least from the urban areas of the conflict-ridden Kashmir Valley.
The paramiliary force has been fully co-operating with the ongoing removal of some security bunkers in Srinagar city as ‘it is part of the 8-point peace plan approved by the central government’, he added.
The decision to remove the bunkers was taken at the highest level after ‘detailed deliberations’, he pointed out.
Vijay Kumar, who shot to fame as the head of the police team which hunted down the forest brigand Veerappan in 2004, took charge Wednesday as the CRPF director general.
The act gives sweeping powers to the armed forces in their counter-terror operations in Jammu and Kashmir and some parts of the northeast. It has come under severe criticism from some political circles and human rights activists who accuse the armed forces of misusing the law, which gives them legal immunity in case of a ‘collateral damage’ during their operations against terrorists and insurgents.
