By Raqib Hameed Naik, TwoCircles.net,
Jammu: The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) leader and Minister in the new PDP-BJP government in Jammu and Kashmir said on Thursday that it has started the process of releasing political prisoners and bringing Kashmiri prisoners back to the State.
PDP leader and Minister for Public Works Altaf Bukhari told a national newspaper that the process would be completed within a year. “It is a part of our manifesto. We have to deliver on it and we will,” Bukhari told the The Hindu.
According to Bukhari, the government has also started the process of clearing passports of people whose relatives had been involved in militancy. “We have also promised that we will withdraw the FIRs registered against the youth who took part in Protest processions in 2008 and 2010, and we shall do it in a year’s time,” Bukhari said.
Pertinently , hundreds of youth were booked under draconian Public safety act (PSA) and other unlawful activities for protesting against the Amarnath land transfer 2008 and Machail Fake encounter, killing of two school going children that led to the mass uprising in 2010.
Earlier on Wednesday, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed held a review meeting with Director General of Police, K Rajendra, along with and Inspector General, CID, B. Srinivasan and instructed the police to initiate a “process of releasing all those political prisoners in the state against whom no criminal charges are registered.”
News Daily The Indian Express quoted a CM’s spokesperson as saying: “Initiating a process of release of political prisoners would send a positive message across the political spectrum of the state,” the Chief Minister said, adding that “dissent in democracy makes the system vibrant and dynamic”.
The CM too had urged to make Passport clearance easier.
Meanwhile, BJP’s local unit condemned the “divisive” remarks being made by the CM and other PDP leaders and urged the government to concentrate on implementation of Common Minimum Programme.
Hitting out at the remarks of the CM over initiating process of releasing political prisoners in the state against whom no criminal charges are registered, the local BJP unit said that “patronizing separatists and militants” cannot be tolerated.