Unfair to link statehood restoration with Pahalgam attack: Omar Abdullah

Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Saturday said that linking restoration of statehood of Jammu and Kashmir with the Pahalgam terror attack was unfair.

Omar, who was addressing a press conference in Srinagar, said that the elected government in J&K cannot be blamed for the unfortunate terror attack that killed 26 civilians as the security and law and order are directly under the charge of the Lt. Governor.

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He stressed that it was time for the Centre to fulfill its commitment. Statehood was promised as part of a three-step process—delimitation, elections, and statehood restoration. Two steps are complete, and the third must follow. Linking statehood with terrorism or law and order is unjust. Those involved in recent incidents weren’t from Jammu and Kashmir, so punishing our people is senseless, he remarked.

Omar asserted he would not ally with the BJP to hasten the restoration of statehood to the Union territory, saying his party had no intention of repeating the “mistakes” committed by the PDP and others in the past.

He reiterated his demand for the immediate restoration of Jammu and Kashmir’s statehood, saying that the delay in empowering the elected government was “unfair to the people” and contrary to the assurances made in Parliament and the Supreme Court.

On whether the restoration of statehood was conditional upon the BJP’s return to power in J&K, he said, “If that’s the case, they should say it openly. The BJP never claimed statehood depended on them ruling here. As for us, there’s no question of tying up with them again. The PDP-BJP alliance of 2015 devastated this region, and I will not repeat that mistake.

“J&K is still suffering the after-effects of the PDP-BJP alliance,” he said.

He said that those who criticized him had contested the 2014 assembly election on the promise of keeping BJP out of power, but after winning they joined hands with the saffron party.

When asked if he would become a party to the Supreme Court case on statehood, the Chief Minister said the option was under active consideration. “I’ve discussed it with senior lawyers in J&K and Delhi. Perhaps I am the only person who has served as Chief Minister of both a state and a Union Territory, so I understand the disadvantages. Based on legal advice, I may become a party to the case,” he said.

J&K, he said, is the only among the states and UTs of the country that does not have an advocate general because of the lack of the rules of business.