Jammu, Nov 6: Addressing his party workers in Jammu for the first time in over a year, National Conference president Farooq Abdullah on Friday said he won’t die until constitutional rights of the people of the erstwhile state are restored.
“I will not die until the rights of my people are given back. I am here to do something for the people and the day I will finish my work, I will leave this world,” Abdullah told NC workers at Sher-e-Kashmir Bhawan here ahead of a scheduled meeting of the People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD) on Saturday.
It was Abdullah’s first political meeting in Jammu since abrogation of Article 370 and bifurcation of J&K state into two Union Territories by centre on August 5, last year.
Abdullah, accompanied by his son and former chief minister Omar Abdullah, arrived here this afternoon
The Abdullahs, along with other political leaders in Kashmir, were detained under the Public Safety Act and released this year.
Abdullah, the sitting parliamentarian from Srinagar and a former chief minister, said his party had never differentiated between Jammu, Ladakh and Kashmir and always considered them a single entity.
“We have never thought that Jammu, Ladakh and Kashmir are separate from each other. We could not be able to take the people of these regions on board at the time of the formation of the PAGD due to the urgency of the situation and now we are here,” Abdullah said.
He said the parties have joined hands to pitch for the restoration of the Article 370, Article 35A and throw away the “black laws” which were implemented in Jammu and Kashmir beyond Lakhanpur — the gateway to the erstwhile state bordering Punjab. (Agencies)
