Jammu (Jammu and Kashmir): National Conference leader Omar Abdullah on Friday claimed that the recent "missteps" of the Centre have pushed the Valley's youth to pick up arms again.
"In 2012, 2013, and 2014, there was barely any youth resorting to arms. The number of men, who joined the militancy over a period of 12-13 years, is now being matched in a matter of months these days," the former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir said at a public gathering here on Friday.
He added the number of youth joining militancy in one year earlier is similar to those joining in a month now.
"They said that by removing Articles 370 and 35A, people, who were distraught with the Indian administration, would completely be assimilated into the rest of the country. But I'd like to say with conviction that after this, these people are even more alienated than before," Abdullah said.
Meanwhile, addressing his party workers in Jammu for the first time in over a year, a visibly emotional Farooq Abdullah said he won't die until Constitutional rights of the people of the erstwhile state are restored.
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The National Conference (NC) president also assailed the BJP for "misleading the country" and making "false promises" to the people of Jammu and Kashmir as well as those in Ladakh.
"I will not die until the rights of my people are given back.... I am here to do something for the people and the day I will finish my work, I will leave this world," Abdullah told NC workers who packed the Sher-e-Kashmir Bhawan here ahead of a scheduled meeting of the People's Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD).
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It was 84-year-old Abdullah's first political meeting in Jammu since the abrogation of Article 370, which accorded Jammu and Kashmir special status, and bifurcation of the state into union territories in August last year.
Mainstream political parties in Jammu and Kashmir, including the NC and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), formed the PAGD last month for the restoration of the special status of the erstwhile state as it existed before August 5 last year and also to initiate a dialogue between all stakeholders on the issue.
(With inputs from agencies)
