Farooq demands restoration of internal autonomy in J-K

A year ahead of the assembly polls in Jammu and Kashmir, ruling National Conference (NC) seems to have hit the poll mode button, saying restoration of internal autonomy was the only solution to the political problems of the state.

A year ahead of the assembly polls in Jammu and Kashmir, ruling National Conference (NC) seems to have hit the poll mode button, saying restoration of internal autonomy was the only solution to the political problems of the state.

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"Jammu and Kashmir is primarily a political problem and needs to be resolved through peaceful political means.

"The only way to bring normalcy and permanent peace to the state and the subcontinent is to restore autonomy in its pristine form, as guaranteed in the Indian Constitution," NC president Farooq Abdullah said in his message in the party's online newsletter. The newsletter was launched during the NC's Central Working Committee meeting held at Jammu recently with the aim of highlighting its achievements.

Abdullah chose the inaugural edition of the newsletter to reiterate his party's stand on Kashmir issue. "If there existed solution better than autonomy, which is acceptable to the people of Jammu and Kashmir, the NC would have no problem in accepting it. But there is no viable solution than autonomy," the newsletter quoted Abdullah, who is Union Minister for New and Renewable Energy, as saying.