Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah delivered a forceful Independence Day speech, criticising the practice of linking terror attacks to Jammu and Kashmir’s political future and asserting that Pakistan should not be allowed to influence it through terrorism.
According to PTI, In his first speech since Jammu and Kashmir was downgraded to a union territory, he announced a signature campaign would be launched to press the demand for restoration of statehood.
Abdullah’s remarks came a day after a Supreme Court bench, led by Chief Justice of India B R Gavai, said “incidents like Pahalgam” must be considered when deciding on statehood.
Pakistani terrorists killed 26 civilians, mostly tourists, in the Baisaran meadow in south Kashmir’s Pahalgam on April 22.
In his speech at Bakshi Stadium in Srinagar, Abdullah termed the reference to Pahalgam “unfortunate” and directly challenged the idea of letting terror dictate the region’s political future.
He said, “Will the killers of Pahalgam and their masters in the neighbouring country decide whether we will be a state?”
“Every time we are close to statehood, they will do something to sabotage it. Is this fair? Why are we being punished for a crime in which we had no role?” the chief minister questioned, pointing that residents from Kathua to Kupwara protested the Pahalgam attack on their own will.
Abdullah asserted that successive governments in Jammu and Kashmir progressively brought down militancy.
“Elected government, whether mine or of others, did not allow such incidents. We had brought down the militancy-related parameters every year. Today it is said that we cannot handle the situation. We have not failed earlier and we will not fail in future as well. You will have to trust us,” he said.
To fight the recent legal and political setbacks, the chief minister announced a plan to take the people’s voice directly to Delhi. “The Supreme Court has given us eight weeks,” he said, referring to the time granted by the apex court before the next hearing on the statehood issue.
“Me and my colleagues will use these eight weeks to go to each of the 90 assembly constituencies of Jammu and Kashmir.”
