Kashmir cabinet meet on AFSPA postponed?

A cabinet meeting that was to take place Thursday to discuss the partial revocation of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) from Jammu and Kashmir has been postponed, official sources say.

No new date has been notified, the sources said.

Political analysts see it as a clear sign that matters regarding AFSPA’s revocation from some areas, for which Chief Minister Omar Abdullah had been campaigning in public and with the central government, have not been resolved.

The army has said no to the rollback of the AFSPA, which grants sweeping powers to the security forces in counter-insurgency operations and shields them from any legal action for their acts of omission and commission.

AFSPA was invoked in Kashmir Valley in 1990 and in the Jammu region in 2001.