Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Wednesday alleged that Kashmiris were being unfairly targeted in the aftermath of the November 10 blast near Delhi’s Red Fort and said the abrogation of Article 370 had not ended the bloodshed in the union territory.
“An impression is being created that we are all responsible for what happened in Delhi. It feels like a crime to drive a vehicle with a J&K registration number. When I don’t take security personnel with me in Delhi now while driving, I have to think twice, wondering if I might be stopped and questioned," he told reporters.
His remarks came after Dr Umar Nabi, a 28-year-old assistant professor at Haryana’s Al-Falah University, was identified as the suspected suicide attacker in Delhi. He originally hailed from J&K’s Pulwama. Two others, Dr Muzzamil Shakeel and Dr Shaheen Shahid, arrested with arms, ammunition and explosive material, also had connections to J&K.
Hours before the blast, eight people were arrested, and 2,900 kilograms of explosives were seized in what police described as a “white-collar terror module", spanning Kashmir, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, linked to the Jaish-e-Mohammed and Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind.
Abdullah further said that revoking the special status of Jammu and Kashmir has not ended the bloodshed in the union territory, and those responsible for security should be held accountable.
“If there is no blast in Delhi, then it is happening here, and innocent people are losing their lives. We want these things to stop. Over the last 30-35 years, J&K has seen a lot of bloodshed. We were told in 2019 that all this would stop. But, it has not," he told mediapersons in Kulgam district.
The Centre, on August 5, 2019, abrogated Article 370 of the Constitution that gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir. The erstwhile state was also bifurcated and downgraded into two Union territories – J&K and Ladakh.
Raising the recent accidental blast in Nowgam, J&K CM said, “You will have to ask those responsible for our security as to why it (violence) has not ended. That responsibility does not lie in our hands. He lamented that innocent people were losing their lives in such incidents.
