Some ‘Cong friends’ conspired against revoking AFSPA: Omar

Srinagar, Apr 2: Welcoming as “better late than never” the Congress poll promise of amending the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), National Conference leader Omar Abdullah on Tuesday said earlier “some friends” in the grand old party had “conspired” against scrapping the controversial law when he had demanded so during his tenure as the chief minister.
“I wish they would have mentioned this issue (in the manifesto) earlier when I was the chief minister. At that time, when I demanded AFSPA’s removal, some Congress friends had conspired against it. I do not want to name them. But I got support only from (former Union minister P) Chidambaram sa’ab,” he told ANI.
“If the Congress has mentioned this in their manifesto, I welcome it… It’s better late than never. If they had done this before 2014, we would have worked to lift ASFPA from certain parts of the state,” he added.
He asked Prime Minister, Narendra Modi to read the history of Kashmir and learn in what conditions Kashmir has acceded with India.
“I have not said anything wrong in my statement. The constitution of India of which PM and his party have taken an oath have clearly mentioned in it that J&K will have its own map, its own Flag, J&K will have its own constitution and according to the constitution we will have our own prime minister and president,” Omar explained.
Reacting to the PM Modi’s statement, Omar said that he stands by what he said. “They always wanted internal autonomy of Kashmir and they will keep working on it. NC has had this stand when they were in alliance with Vajpayee’s BJP and still continue,” Omar said, while addressing the media.
He said that till 1965 Kashmir had its PM and President, and he hasn’t said anything new and NC has also not said this thing in air.
Omar further said that former PM, Narasimha Rao also have promised JK to give their right to decide their fate.
Narendra Modi on Monday hit out at Omar Abdullah over his statement seeking a separate Prime Minister for Kashmir, and asked the Congress-led opposition alliance to make their stand clear on his statement.