New Delhi, September 26: Eager not to fritter away gains made by the All Party delegation, the Centre on Saturday announced an eight point package to bring back normalcy in a crisis-ridden Kashmir. The package includes forming a group of interlocutors to have “sustained dialogue” with all sections of the people, including youth.
Home Minister P Chidambaram said the group would have two to four members, headed by an eminent person. It would engage in a sustained dialogue with political parties, groups, youth and student organisations, civil society organisations and other stakeholders in J&K,
In a hurriedly called press briefing after the meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) on Kashmir was advanced by at least a couple of days, Chidambaram sought to calm the situation by advising Omar Abdullah’s government to immediately release all students and youth detained or arrested for stone pelting and similar violations and drop the charges against them.
The Centre announced an ex-gratia relief of Rs 5 lakhs to families of each person killed in the civil disturbances since June 11 — a total of 108 people.
The CCS advised the State Government to immediately review the cases of all Public Safety Act detenues and withdraw the detention orders in appropriate cases.
“As of today the total number of detained and arrested persons in Kashmir is only 245 — of which 84 are under judicial custody, 110 in police custody and 51 under PSA,” said Chidambaram.
However, taking a cautious approach on reducing presence of the security forces’ and tinkering with the controversial Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA), the Centre put the onus to make a decision onto the Omar Abdullah government, requesting it to convene a meeting of the Unified Command for a review.
–Agencies