CPI(M) welcomes cabinet committee on security's decisions on Kashmir

Welcoming the government's eight-point initiative on Jammu and Kashmir, the CPI(M) today said a review of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) should be positively considered by the Unified Command in the state.

"It is good that the government has taken these decisions, particularly on the release of the youths, review of cases of detainees under the Public Safety Act (PSA) and compensation," party Politburo member Sitaram Yechury told PTI here.

He said all the decisions, taken by the cabinet committee on security after the recent visit of a parliamentary delegation to the state, "must be operationalised immediately".

"However, the issues of AFSPA and the action to be initiated on proven cases of excesses (by security forces) still remain to be attended," Yechury said, expressing hope that when the Unified Command meets in Srinagar, these issues would be reviewed and "positively considered".

Yechury, who led MPs to meet separatist leaders as well as the displaced Kashmiri Pandits among others, said the special packages announced for Jammu and Ladakh regions were a
welcome move.

"The long-pending assurances and promises made for the
rehabilitation of Kashmiri Pandits and others must be immediately implemented," Yechury said. 

He said the political goodwill generated by the visit of the parliamentary delegation "must be carried forward and the
confidence-building measures consolidated by the group of
interlocutors that the government has said it will constitute".