Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah on Sunday warned the Centre against imagining that the current peaceful situation in the valley was “permanent” and ignoring “people’s anger”.
“Though the people have always chosen peace against disturbance, you cannot take them for granted forever,” said Abdullah at a public rally in central Kashmir’s Chrar-e-Sharief town, 30 km from Srinagar.
Upping the ante against the Centre, apparently to reach out to the separatist pockets in the valley ahead of the 2014 polls, Abdullah said, “Permanent peace and tranquillity is directly proportional to the resolution of basic political issues confronting the state.”
In the past one week, the chief minister in several interviews to newspapers and news channels has attacked the army, blaming it for the troubled situation in 2010 and insisting on revoking the Armed Special Powers Act, and referred to his warning to New Delhi against the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru.
“The people in Kashmir may exhibit restrain and patience over various provocations like the hanging of Afzal Guru without informing his family, killing of two innocent youths in Markundal (Bandipora district) recently and many other such aggravations, but that does not mean that their patience will always be taken for granted,” said the chief minister.