Srinagar (Jammu and Kashmir) [India], August 14 : National Conference president Farooq Abdullah on Thursday said that the demand of statehood cannot merely be singled out as a factor to ascertain whether terror attacks will come to a halt in Jammu and Kashmir.
The remarks were made by the NC Chief after the Supreme Court, while hearing petitions, noted that the ground situation in Jammu and Kashmir cannot be ignored while granting statehood and said that the events in Pahalgam cannot be overlooked.
Speaking to reporters, Farooq Abdullah said, "Nobody can undermine anything. These (terror attacks) happened even when it was a State. It is not as if just Statehood is responsible for this. This will happen because we do not have good relations with our neighbours. They (terrorists) come from there. If they are speaking of Statehood and the Pahalgam incident, then they should remember that several incidents occurred in my tenure, but it was a State at that time. We tackled it at that time."
Expressing hope in the judicial process, Abdullah said, "People are hopeful that the Supreme Court will take note of this and restore our rights, something which has been promised by the Government inside as well as outside the Parliament."
The top court, while hearing pleas seeking direction to restore the statehood of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, on Thursday observed that in granting statehood, the ground situation has to be taken into consideration.
"You cannot ignore what happened in Pahalgam," said a bench of CJI BR Gavai and Justice K Vinod Chandran.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre, said the government had assured statehood after elections, but there is a peculiar situation there. He said the assembly elections were held in Jammu and Kashmir as promised to the Constitution bench that had upheld the abrogation of Article 370 and the bifurcation of Jammu and Kashmir into two Union Territories.
"This is not the time for petitioners to muddy the waters," he further said. Mehta sought eight weeks to take instruction from the government on the issue.
In 2019, on the recommendation of Parliament, the President gave assent to the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019. Accordingly, the former state of Jammu and Kashmir was reorganised as the new Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir and the new Union Territory of Ladakh on October 31, 2019.