In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has said that the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Indian government “ruined Ladakh” after separating it from Jammu and Kashmir in 2019 and warned that New Delhi now appears intent on doing the same to Jammu by seeking to split it from Kashmir. 

According to Kashmir Media Service, speaking to reporters in Jammu, Omar Abdullah said Ladakh was converted into a Union Territory “only to be mishandled and ruined by New Delhi,” adding that similar divisive experiments were now being encouraged in Jammu under the guise of separate statehood demands.

He was reacting to remarks by BJP leader and Jammu North MLA Sham Lal Sharma calling for separate statehood for Jammu — later termed by the BJP as his “individual view”.  Omar Abdullah asked why the BJP was suddenly remembering Jammu’s statehood. He said that when Jammu and Kashmir was unlawfully reorganised in August 2019, it was the BJP in power in New Delhi, yet it chose not to raise the matter at that time.

“Why this sudden concern now? Their politics has failed somewhere, and they are trying to cover it up,” he said.  He further questioned the motive behind proposals to separate Jammu from Kashmir, saying it raised apprehensions of religious and political engineering. “On what basis do they want to do this? Is it on religious lines? On one side they accuse us, and on the other side they themselves are destroying Jammu and Kashmir,” he remarked. 

Meanwhile, in Srinagar, Cabinet Minister Javed Ahmad Rana said Ladakh would eventually be reunited with Jammu and Kashmir, adding that “India will have no other option in the future.” He noted that Jammu and Kashmir was once a full-fledged state and regretted its progressive fragmentation.  It is worth mentioning that on August 5, 2019, India bifurcated the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir into two Union territories — Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh — after illegally scrapping Article 370, which granted special status to the internationally recognized disputed territory.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan (INP)