SRINAGAR – Former chief minister of Indian-occupied Kashmir Omar Abdullah on Saturday gave a clean chit to Pakistan, saying the country cannot be blamed for the ongoing unrest in Kashmir.
‘Pakistan has no role in triggering the present uprising in the Valley. They might have taken advantage of the situation or added fuel to it but Pakistan is not responsible for present unrest,’ he said, adding, it was easy to blame Pakistan. But we kept trying to make them understand that the unrest in Kashmir has not been created by Pakistan.
‘It is the result of our mistakes’ he clarified.
The opposition National Conference (NC) working president said distorting the current unrest in the Valley as a simple manifestation of terrorism or external interference would be a grave mistake.
“We told the central government to act on the promises that it has made to people of Jammu and Kashmir. We told the Centre to understand the betrayal it has been committing for so many years against the State,” Omar said, while addressing the party delegates’ convention.
Omar Abdullah said: “Don’t be under the false impression that the unrest in Kashmir has been ignited by Pakistan.
“Distorting the current unrest in Valley as a simple manifestation of terrorism or external interference would be a grave mistake. To blame Pakistan alone for the political situation or the current unrest in the Valley is a distortion of the truth,” he said.
Omar said the IOK people have espoused a political sentiment even when there was no external interference and this political sentiment forms the basis of the State’s special status that has since been eroded by extra-constitutional machinations.
“The situation today stands compounded because of the present Central Government’s refusal to even acknowledge that a problem exists in Kashmir,” Omar said.
Kashmir has been witnessing unrest after the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani on July 8.
At least 94 people have been killed, over 13,000 injured and more than 8,000 arrested during the over four-month-long unrest in the restive region.
