New Delhi, March 27 (CNI) Former Jammu and Kashmir Governor NN Vohra on Wednesday lauded Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s statement that the Center should withdraw troops from the Union Territory and restore peace and order there. Aman is planning to hand over to the police.
Vohra also welcomed Shah’s intention to repeal the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA) from Jammu and Kashmir.
He hoped that the government would follow suit and withdraw the army from other parts of the country where it had been deployed for long to carry out internal security duties.
“The state police should be freed to discharge its primary duty of maintaining public order and the army to return to its essential duties,” Vohra said in a statement here.
In an interview on Tuesday, Shah said the government plans to withdraw troops and leave law and order to the Jammu and Kashmir police.
Shah had also said that the central government would consider revoking IFSP from Jammu and Kashmir.
The AFSPA gives broad powers to armed forces personnel, operating in disturbed areas, to search, arrest and fire if they deem it necessary to “maintain public order”.
Shah had earlier said that IFSPA has been removed from 70 per cent of the northeastern states even though it is in force in Jammu and Kashmir.
Vohra was the Governor of Jammu and Kashmir from 2008 to 2018 before the state was bifurcated and converted into a UT.
He also served as Home Secretary of Punjab during the post-Operation Blue Star turmoil and later as Defense Secretary and Home Secretary with the Central Government.(CNI)
