People of J&K hope SC will restore statehood: Farooq Abdullah

Srinagar: National Conference (NC) presidentFarooq Abdullah said the people of Jammu and Kashmir have hope that the Supreme Court will restore their “right to statehood”.

He, however, said not restoring the statehood to J&K because of incidents like the Pahalgam attack was wrong.

“People here have hopes that the Supreme Court(SC) will restore their right -“ a promise the Government of India has made both inside and outside Parliament, and in the SC as well,” Abdullah told reporters here.

The Supreme Court on Thursday sought a response from the Centre in eight weeks on a plea seeking the restoration of statehood to J&K.

“You also have to take into consideration the ground realities — you cannot ignore what has happened in Pahalgam,” Chief Justice of India (CJI) B R Gavai, on a bench comprising Justice K Vinod Chandran, said when counsels, including senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, sought an early hearing.

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Abdullah claimed statehood was not responsible for terror attacks. “Saying that statehood cannot be restored to J&K because of the Pahalgam attack is wrong. They should remember that many such incidents happened during my time (as chief minister) when we had a state and we used to tackle them.

“When there was a state, these (attacks) used to happen then also. It is not that statehood is responsible for that. These (attacks) will take place because our relations with our neighbour are not good. They (terrorists) come from there only,” he added.

The NC president said the reports of a massive cloudburst in the Kishtwar district in the Jammu region were very painful. “Cloudbursts have become a routine in hilly areas. They happen in Uttarakhand. Ramban also witnessed one recently. Today, it has happened near the temple where the Machail Yatra takes place. Lakhs of people undertake the yatra there,” Abdullah said.

“We still do not know how many people have lost their life. I got a phone call from someone who told me that around 400 people were injured, and they need urgent medical assistance. The weather is not good. I hope air force helicopters could reach there and take the injured people out,” he said.

Abdullah requested Prime Minister Narendra Modito take the issue of global warming seriously.

“It (cloudburst) has become common in hilly areas and a way has to be found to save people from such incidents,” he said.

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