J&K CM Mehbooba Mufti may free ‘misguided’ youth

Scores of Kashmiri youth languishing in jails for their involvement in unrests over the years will be free ahead of Id-ul-Fitr in the first week of July.

Chief minister Mehbooba Mufti said in Assembly Wednesday that the state home department had been asked to prepare a list of the youth whom she termed as “misguided” and who were involved in various cases of violence since 2008 and were subsequently booked under criminal charges by J&K police.

“My government will study these cases and we are contemplating an amnesty scheme for those who are willing to shun the path of violence and lead normal lives,” she said, adding, “Many of these youth who are languishing in jails will be set free before Id and the remaining cases will also be considered on humanitarian grounds.”

“Unlike the previous government, it is not our hobby to jail people, but sometimes certain harsh steps are necessitated to prevent law and order problems,” she added.

In May Ms Mufti had hinted at granting general amnesty to separatist militants if they submitted to the Constitution and rule of law. She had told a meeting of Unified Headquarters that it would be the right thing “to give an option of homecoming to the local youth who had picked up guns”.

While speaking in the state Assembly on Wednesday, Ms Mufti described Jammu and Kashmir as an abode of secularism and asked the opposition to stop smelling conspiracies in policies of the coalition government which, she claimed, were aimed at restoring peace and ushering the state towards a new era of prosperity.

She said the government was committed towards the “honourable return” of displaced Kashmiri Pandits to the Valley but a sense of security must prevail in the community before they can restart their lives at their native places.

“We will settle them temporarily in transit accommodations and once they adjust to the new life, they can gradually restart their lives at their native places,” she said.

She also said that the PDP-BJP government was committed to protect Article 370, which she described as the lifeline of relations between India and Jammu and Kashmir.