NEW DELHI: Hundreds of people, led by India-occupied Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, held a protest in New Delhi on Monday demanding the restoration of the region’s statehood, nearly seven years after New Delhi revoked its special status by abrogating Article 370.
Police prevented demonstrators from carrying out the protest, Abdullah said in a post on X, sharing videos and images of participants holding placards and chanting slogans.
“This is only the beginning of our struggle for statehood, our rights, our dignity and everything that was taken away from us,” Abdullah said in the post.
In August 2019, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government scrapped occupied Kashmir’s partial autonomy, stripped it of statehood and split the former state into two federally administered territories — Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh.
The Indian government has repeatedly said statehood would be restored at an “appropriate time”, but has not announced any timeline.
Abdullah and his Jammu and Kashmir National Conference have consistently urged the federal government to honour its commitment and restore statehood without further delay.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), however, accused Abdullah’s party of using the protest to shift attention away from what it described as shortcomings in the regional administration.
“It is the misfortune of the people of Jammu and Kashmir that today we have to come to Delhi to protest and remind our Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah of their promise,” Deputy Chief Minister Surinder Choudhary said, according to Press Trust of India.
“You promised the people of Jammu and Kashmir that you would restore statehood after the elections. Today, it has been nearly a year and a half, and neither the prime minister nor the home minister has fulfilled that promise,” Choudhary pointed out.
