Indian Kashmir: Amnesty offered to ‘stone throwers’

Govt will drop cases against youths to give them 'opportunity to be responsible persons and lead a normal life.'

SRINAGAR: Indian Kashmir has declared an amnesty for more than 1,000 youths alleged to have attacked security forces during pro-independence protests last year in which more than 100 civilians died.

The government will drop the cases against the youths to give them “an opportunity to be responsible persons and lead a normal life”, Kashmir’s chief minister Omar Abdullah said in a statement released late Sunday.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 30^th,  2011.