Don’t need Pak response for amnesty policy: PC

Union Home Minister P Chidambaram said today that he did not need a response from Islamabad for implementing the Jammu and Kashmir government’s policy on providing amnesty to Kashmiri youngsters returning from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).

Union Home Minister P Chidambaram said on Wednesday that he did not need a response from Islamabad for implementing the Jammu and Kashmir government’s policy on providing amnesty to Kashmiri youngsters returning from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).

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“Why should I expect response from Pakistan?” he said. “What has that (Pakistan’s response) to do with me?”

The proposed policy has got the green signal from the home ministry. An estimated 3,000 youngsters from J&K are in PoK.

Chidambaram reviewed the security situation in the state on Wednesday, after meeting senior officers of the army, paramilitary forces and state police.

He later told the media the idea behind the amnesty was to facilitate the return of youngsters to the state –– provided they renounced terrorism. “It’s an acceptable idea, and we have accepted the idea,” he said.

The state government was working on the draft of policy, he said. “The scheme involves (youngsters’) identification, screening, facilitating their travel back, de-briefing and then their integration with the families,” he said. “It will take time and we will work patiently on it.”

Quizzed about the reported threat by Kashmiri militant Ilyas Kashmiri, who warned countries against sending sportspersons to India, the home minister said: “We can’t be deterred and aren’t deterred by what Ilyas Kashmiri says.”