'Not all Kashmiri Muslims are terrorists’: CM Omar Abdullah on Pahalgam attack, Delhi blast
“Kashmiris are as disturbed by the attack in Delhi as they were about Pahalgam,” Jammu and Kashmir CM Omar Abdullah said at Hindustan Leadership Summit 2025
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah stressed on Saturday that an entire community should not be painted with the same brush after terror attacks. “Kashmiris are as disturbed by the attack in Delhi as they were about Pahalgam,” he said, speaking at the Hindustan Leadership Summit 2025 in New Delhi.
“Not all Kashmiri Muslims are terrorists; not all of them support terrorism. In fact, they are a miniscule minority that do,” he said, in conversation with HT’s Political Editor Sunetra Choudhury.
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He termed the year 2025 “a difficult one by any yardstick” for Jammu and Kashmir. In that context, he mentioned the attack in Baisaran (Pahalgam) and the blast near Red Fort in Delhi “which emanated from a conspiracy hatched in J&K”.
He added, “The overwhelming majority of the people (in Jammu and Kashmir) are the ones you saw out on the streets after the attack in Baisaran (Pahalgam),” referring to the candlelight protests against the attack that claimed over two dozen lives at the tourist spot.
“They are the ones in colleges and universities… ones trying to earn an honest day's living in various parts,” he said.
He rued that the Pahalgam attack in April "completely reoriented” the UT’s economy. “We have never been a particularly strong economy. Unfortunately these kinds of circumstances make it even more difficult,” he said.
He also spoke about “othering” within India, and an instance in Haryana — without expressly naming the state — of government orders after the Delhi blast that all foreign nationals and Kashmiris needed to register at their nearest police station. By the time he could speak to the leaders there, “the damage was done”, he said.
Asked about the reported “return of home-grown terrorism” in India, Omar Abdullah said it was always there. “When did it go away? The ones who are surprised are the ones who thought it had gone away," he remarked.
He also said that changes to the Constitution — removal of Article 370 and turning J&K into a UT — were not enough to end terror. “You cannot have an elected government that is completely removed from security-related decisions,” said Abdullah, asserting that the UT status to J&K, though with a legislative assembly, was not a solution.
