J&K Statehood Talks Still Alive, Regardless Of Pahalgam Attack: Omar Abdullah

“No, not at all,” the Chief Minister quipped when asked if the April 22 terror attack at Pahalgam mired the talks between his government and the Centre over the restoration of J&K’s statehood.

The Chief Minister was speaking to reporters at Kashmir’s ski resort of Gulmarg where he earlier chaired a meeting of the administrative secretaries and heads of departments as part of the government’s effort to instill public confidence and encourage people to visit Kashmir.

“If you have to take out the formal speech (of the Chief Minister) that was circulated in the NITI Aayog meeting, you will find a categorical mention for the return of statehood in that (the written speech) which was given to the honourable Prime Minister and all the members of the governing council of the NITI Aayog,” he said. He added, “So the conversation around statehood is not stalled. The only thing I was unwilling to do was to talk about statehood during the special session of the (J&K) Assembly (held in Jammu on April 28 to discuss the Pahalgam terror attack). But that doesn’t mean the conversation has stopped. The conversation is ongoing.”

Talking about the holding of important back-to-back official meetings at Pahalgam and Gulmarg , the Chief Minister said that it was part of the effort to send out a message from these places that “we are reopening J&K for tourism”. He said, “Palpably, after April 22 everything has stopped. (But) before people from across the country start coming here again we ourselves should come to these places. Therefore, it was at Pahalgam that we held a meeting of the Cabinet yesterday and today a meeting of administrative secretaries and heads of departments was held here at Gulmarg. Our effort is; firstly, there should be some hustle and bustle and, secondly, there is some publicity exercise too”.

The Chief Minister said that he has asked his education minister to encourage excursions by school and college students to these places also. “I asked her to bring them to destinations like Pahalgam and Gulmarg. So that we return to normalcy”, he said.

Abdullah acknowledged ongoing restrictions at several tourist spots and stressed the need to review them. “Yes, there are areas still closed—like Doodhpathri, Betab Valley, and parts of Gulmarg and Pahalgam. But, if we are serious about restarting tourism, we must gradually reassess and reduce these restrictions,” he said, adding that while security is important, J&K must also take active steps toward reopening its iconic destinations and restoring public confidence.

Replying to a question, Abdullah said that the difference between previous terror incidents and Pahalgam attack was that the people of Kashmir on their own came out to condemn the gory act that took place on April 22. “No politician, no religious leader can claim he brought them out. People took to the streets from Kathua to Kupwara-be it the Chenab valley, the Pirpanjal region, the Kashmir Valley or Jammu- on their own. Whether major cities or small towns or villages, people came out to condemn the incident,” he said.

Responding to the calls for boycotting Kashmir, the Chief Minister said, “The people of Kashmir did not carry out this attack. We must use our agencies to know who the perpetrators were. The people of Kashmir did not drive tourists out. This attack was not carried out with our permission or for our benefit. The people of Kashmir came out of their homes to tell the world ‘not in our name’.”

He added, “Despite this if some elements are calling for boycotting Kashmir, who will come out to condemn if, God forbid, another such incident takes place. If, even after condemning this incident, we are held responsible, what would we do? So that is why I want the Centre to not ignore these things and use its agencies to hold inquiry into this incident and stop this campaign.”

The Chief Minister stressed the need for joint effort by the Centre, the Lieutenant Governor’s administration and his own government to ensure security to tourists visiting J&K and prevent reoccurrence of Pahalgam like incidents. He said, “The fact is that security and law and order are not the responsibility of the elected government. Whose responsibility is it? The Lieutenant Governor’s and, therefore, clearly there are three sets of power centres that need to coordinate to ensure things go smoothly here”.

He asserted, “I can promote tourism, I can create infrastructure for tourism, I can ensure the tourists come and have a good visit. But the security of the tourists currently resides within the powers of the Lieutenant Governor. And that’s the point I made that the Union government , the elected government and the set of government that is represented by Raj Bhavan…we need to work together to ensure that what happened on the 22^nd April does not happen again.”

The Chief Minister denied that there has been any breakdown of relations between him and Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha. He said, “Have you ever heard me alleging a freezing of relations? I’m just stating that we do need to work closely and together. I’m not saying (that) in the past we haven’t. I’m just saying that going ahead to come out of this crisis, perhaps, we have to redouble our efforts”.

Earlier while addressing the issue of the closed off-beat destinations across Kashmir Valley at the officers' meeting, the Chief Minister had said the list of 48 such tourist spots is under review and will be revised gradually. “Some of these places were never closed even during the worst days. We’ll have to take measured steps to reopen them,” he said.

He also spoke of involving schools and colleges to promote local tourism. “Earlier, during peak tourist season, we would discourage student excursions due to overcrowding. Now, we must encourage them. Let the children come and experience these places. It’s another step towards normalcy,” he had said.