Statehood Debate: Lone Challenges Abdullah's Remarks

People’s Conference chief Sajad Lone criticized Chief Minister Omar Abdullah for associating statehood with law and order in Jammu and Kashmir. Lone emphasized that statehood is the right of its people and condemned Abdullah's remarks about its conditionality. He also questioned the handling of state affairs by the current government.

Sajad Lone, chief of People's Conference, criticized Chief Minister Omar Abdullah for his comments linking statehood to law and order in Jammu and Kashmir. Lone asserted that statehood is the inherent right of the Union territory's residents, irrespective of Abdullah's conditional stance.

Lone was responding to Abdullah's claims that restoration of statehood would prevent incidents like the Pahalgam attack, as security responsibility would shift to the elected government. Abdullah suggested statehood could be revoked through Parliament if such incidents reoccurred, a notion Lone strongly refuted.

He challenged Abdullah's suggestion by highlighting past security issues under the National Conference (NC) regime. Lone also questioned if other Indian states were free from law and order problems, hinting that the removal of statehood was a targeted measure against Kashmiris, not based on security grounds.

(With inputs from agencies.)