Omar favours amendment to AFSPA; India slams OIC Kashmir comments
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    • Seeking a political solution to the Kashmir issue, the Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said that the time has come for initiating important confidence building measures which included amendment of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act. "The UPA has got a comfortable majority and it is in a position to work out for a political solution to the Kashmir problem. To begin with, we may set up an expert group which may study the AFSPA and find out what were the rules that needed to be amended for removing the draconian nature of the Act," Omar said this in New Delhi on May 311.

    Meanwhile, India slammed the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) for commenting on Kashmir issue and dubbing the Mumbai terror attacks merely as an "incident". "We note with regret that the OIC has chosen to comment on India’s internal affairs during the 36th Session of the Council of Foreign Ministers held in Syria," the Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement in New Delhi on May 29. During the meeting that took place between May 23 and 25, the OIC Secretary General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu had said the grouping affirms "commitment and support to the Kashmiri freedom struggle" and stressed the need for resumption of dialogue between India and Pakistan to achieve "a just and peaceful resolution" of the Kashmir issue. The ministry statement asserted that the "OIC has no locus standi on India’s internal affairs". Taking note of the OIC resolution where the Mumbai attack has been referred to as a mere ‘incident’, the ministry said "we strongly reject such resolutions ... it is most unfortunate that the spectre of terrorism confronting the international community, of which the attack on Mumbai by elements from Pakistan was an extreme manifestation, is not being unambiguously addressed by the OIC2."

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