Farooq Abdullah urges Pakistan to make peace with India for Kashmir’s future

Srinagar, Oct 25: National Conference (NC) President Farooq Abdullah Friday said attacks like the one in Butapathri in north Kashmir’s Baramulla district would continue to occur until India and Pakistan found a way to be friends and that would end Jammu and Kashmir’s troubles.

Two Army men and two porters working with the Army were killed on Thursday after militants ambushed a vehicle of the security forces at Butapathri in Baramulla district.

Another soldier and a porter were injured in the attack.

“Such attacks will continue to take place in this state. You know where they come from and it will not stop until some way is found to get out of this trouble. I have been witnessing it for the last 30 years, innocent people are getting killed,” Abdullah told reporters.

“We are not going to become a part of Pakistan. So, why are they doing this? To disrupt our future? To make us poorer,” he said.

The three-time chief minister said rather than fomenting trouble in J&K, Pakistan should look towards its plight and work for its betterment.

“They are getting ruined themselves and are ruining us as well,” he said.

Abdullah appealed to Pakistan to stop the violence and find a way to form a friendship with India.

“If they don’t find a way, the future will be very difficult,” he said.

Abdullah also paid tribute to the two porters and the two soldiers killed in Thursday’s attack.

“I pay my tribute to those who have been killed. I apologise to their families,” he said.

About whether Pakistan was doing it due to the record turnout in the recent assembly elections, Abdullah said he did not know what happened.

“People voted in the assembly polls and now the assembly will work for the people. We hope the Centre grants full statehood so that the government can work for the people,” he said.

On Chief Minister Omar Abdullah’s recent meetings with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, and Minister of Road, Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari in Delhi, the senior Abdullah said coordination with the Centre was needed for the smooth functioning of the J&K government.

“When I was the chief minister, I used to say this every time that coordination is a good thing because everything is with them,” he said.