PDP welcomes Omar's statement on Bomai-Sopore incident

The PDP on Saturday, welcomed chief minister Omar Abdullah's statement that "stern action" will be initiated against the "guilty soldiers" in connection with the killing of two youths in Bomai-Sopore area and renewed its demand for scrapping of AFSPA in Jammu and Kashmir.

The chief minister on Friday, said "stern action will be initiated against the guilty soldiers, including a junior commissioned officer, in connection with a firing incident in Sopore on February 21 in which two youths were killed and hailed army for carrying out the court of inquiry in a clear and transparent manner.

He also said Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) will come to an end during the tenure of his government.

Welcoming Omar's statement, a PDP spokesman said "series of civilian killings by the security forces after the assembly elections are in no way one-off incidents and these can't be dealt with isolated response now".

"We hope stern action would be taken against the security personnel responsible for Bomai, Nowhatta and Khaigam killings and it would not meet the fate of Pathribal and Ganderbal fake encounters or even Jalil Indrabi murder case as no accused army personnel has been punished yet," he said.

The spokesman said Jammu and Kashmir is now ready for the restoration of "complete civilian system" of governance and for this revocation of AFSPA and sending the troops deployed on internal security duties back to the barracks is a pre-requisite.