Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Saturday said the people of Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (PoK) would have risen to rejoin Jammu and Kashmir if the Centre had not abrogated J&K’s special status and stripped the region of its statehood.
Speaking at the Independence Day function in Srinagar, Abdullah said the situation in PoK has vindicated the decision of the people of Kashmir who fought against invading tribal raiders from Pakistan in 1947 and chose to become part of India.
Abdullah said he was pained by the situation in PoK, where dozens of people were killed and scores injured and jailed for demanding their democratic rights.
“Our government is committed to restoring statehood and constitutional guarantees, and to put Jammu and Kashmir on the path of development.
We will work to fulfil these goals,” Abdullah said in his Independence Day speech.
“I am pained to see the situation in PoK. He paid homage to his grandfather and Jammu and Kashmir’s first Prime Minister, Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah, who had led the people of Kashmir to fight against Pakistani raiders in 1947 and defend their homeland even before the Indian Army arrived in Kashmir. I’m sure that today the people of PoK would have risen for their reintegration into Jammu and Kashmir, if J&K’s statehood and special status had not been scrapped in 2019,” Abdullah said.
“When I see the situation across the border, I realise that our ancestors who said ‘hamlavar khabardar, hum Kashmiri hain tayyar’ (attackers beware, we Kashmiris are prepared) were right,” he said.
