Army Rollback: A Promise of Freedom from the Gunpoint

By siliconindia   |   Saturday, 29 October 2011, 04:12 IST   |    18 Comments
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Irom Sharmila
However, the army has raised strong objections against the suggestions made by Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah for the withdrawal of the controversial special powers to the troops and it reportedly has the full backing from the defense ministry. The army would never agree on proposals on diluting the AFSPA until soldiers are assured of legal protection against being dragged to civilian courts. Backed by the Home Ministry's suggestion that violence-free areas can be denotified as "disturbed areas," the state government is all-set to revoke the Disturbed Ares Act from districts like Badgam, Samba, Srinagar, and Jammu. The iron-lady of Manipur Irom Sharmila's fight seems to have gotten the attention of the nation as several hundreds are taking it to the streets to join 'Save Sharmila Solidarity Campaign which calls for the revocation of the special armed force act. Her decade-long Gandhian way of protest has become a nucleus for collective protest against the draconian law. The account of human rights violations under the shadow of this law is unimaginable as it can be better said to be "over 50 years of human rights violation" in Kashmir and in the North-Eastern states. While the army should be given its needed freedom and adequate protection in its fight against insurgency, the revocation of this draconian law would be the much-needed taste of freedom from the gunpoint.