Omar Abdullah Launches Campaign for Jammu & Kashmir Statehood

Srinagar, Aug 15 (PTI) - Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, in a significant move, announced a large-scale signature campaign to advocate for the restoration of Jammu and Kashmir's statehood. This effort aims to consolidate public opinion and present it before the Supreme Court.

During his Independence Day address at Bakshi Stadium, Abdullah spoke about the remarks made by the Supreme Court regarding the Pahalgam attack. He stated it was regrettable that the residents of the region were being penalized for an incident they had no involvement in. The CM highlighted that the Supreme Court has allowed the government a period of eight weeks to respond. Therefore, beginning today, we will mobilize community support through a door-to-door signature campaign across all 90 assembly segments, focusing on the restoration of statehood.

"If the populace hesitates to endorse the document, I will acknowledge defeat," he declared. Abdullah emphasized the need to harness these collective voices from the grassroots and present them to the authorities where decisions are made, with the intention of forwarding this community-backed appeal to the apex court.

Abdullah criticized the inclusion of the Pahalgam terror attack in Supreme Court deliberations on the issue of statehood. He questioned the logic of factoring such incidents as determinants of statehood status, pointing out the potential for external sabotage each time the matter comes close to resolution, urging fairness in the judgment.

He reminded everyone that from Kathua to Kupwara, communities independently protested against the Pahalgam incident. This mass expression underscores the unfairness of being punished for the attack, which resulted in the tragic loss of 26 civilians, primarily tourists, in the Baisaran meadow in south Kashmir's Pahalgam on April 22.

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