‘I won't demand statehood over dead bodies’: Omar Abdullah on J&K attack
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Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and MLAs observe silence paying tributes to the victims of Pahalgam terror attack
New Delhi: Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Monday said that he would not demand statehood for Union Territory over ‘dead bodies’, adding that ‘We will demand it on another occasion’.
The National Conference leader expressed grief at the horrendous terror attack that killed 26 tourists in Pahalgam.
Pointing out that his government is not in charge of law and order in the region, Abdullah made it clear that he would not use the situation to demand statehood from the BJP administration at the Centre but instead reserve it for another occasion, India Today reported.
Calling for politics to have its limits when human lives are involved, he said ‘My brand of politics is not so cheap that I would demand statehood at the cost of 26 lives’.
Demand for statehood for the Union Territory has long been a major issue in the region’s politics with National Conference's manifesto for the Jammu and Kashmir elections promising restoration of Article 370 and reinstatement of statehood.
In August 2019, Modi administration revoked Article 370 of the Constitution, thus removing the special status accorded to Jammu and Kashmir.
Condemning the terror attack alongside reading out the names of the victims in the Assembly, Abdullah said ‘Today, we want to strongly condemn the Pahalgam terror attack.’
He told the Assembly that being host the safety and protection of the tourists was his responsibility, India Today reported.
Referencing the spontaneous protest that had taken place in the region against terrorist attack, he said ‘In the last 26 years, I have never seen people come out to protest against an attack like this’.
Abdullah claimed ‘Militancy and terrorism will end when people will support us’, and pointing to a change in the situation he said ‘We should not say or show anything which harms this movement that has arisen. We can control militancy using guns, but it will end only when people support us. And now it seems people are reaching that point’.