Srinagar (Jammu and Kashmir) [India], September 7 (ANI): Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Monday said he has been in continuous communication with Union Home Minister Amit Shah as there are several issues between the Union Territory and the Centre, including statehood for Jammu and Kashmir.
Speaking to the media, Omar Abdullah said, "There is continuous communication with the Home Minister. There are several issues between Jammu and Kashmir and the Central Government, whether it is regarding statehood or business rules. We have not had an Advocate General for almost two years now. The reservation matter, on which the Cabinet had to send a response to the Central Government, has already been prepared. However, that response has still not been sent to the Government of India. So, there were several issues on which I met with the Home Minister."
On recent threats to Kashmiri Pandits, employed in the Valley under the Prime Minister's Package, the CM said that the security establishment needs to take the matter seriously.
Abdullah said, “This is something that the security establishment obviously needs to take seriously. It is not something that should be ignored. We have seen in the past, some years ago, when targeted killings of migrants took place, whether they were government employees or private citizens, whether at a chemist shop, a dhaba, or someone working in a bank. They were targeted purely because of their ethnicity or religion. And this is something we cannot afford. We have already paid a heavy price for what happened in the early nineties, so I hope that the security establishment takes these threats seriously. They should investigate them, find out who is behind them, and let the law take its own course.”
Meanwhile, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) leader Iltija Mufti on Monday alleged that her party and its leaders have been selectively targeted and denied permission to hold programmes, particularly over its stand on Article 370.
Mufti said, "When we organised a protest regarding Article 370, I was manhandled during the scuffle with the police; the reality is that we are only permitted to do certain things selectively. ...the PDP is the one party that has been targeted and dismantled over the last seven years—specifically because I fought for Article 370 back then and continue to do so today. Our cadres and leaders are punished, and we are granted permission to hold programs only selectively...the ruling party here suffers from selective amnesia; they do not raise the issue of Article 370 when they protest, yet they are fully facilitated...if I were to stage that same protest against the abrogation of Article 370, I wouldn't even be allowed to step out of my house."
On August 5, 2019, the Central government repealed Article 370 of the Indian Constitution, effectively ending the special status given to Jammu and Kashmir and bifurcating the state into two Union Territories -Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. (ANI)
Continuous communication with Centre over statehood for Jammu and Kashmir: CM Omar Abdullah
