Omar Abdullah slams PDP govt, Centre over rehabilitation of displaced Kashmiris, says nothing was done to bring them back

Hyderabad: The Centre and the PDP-led government in Jammu and Kashmir failed to bring the displaced people back into the Valley as promised, former chief minister Omar Abdullah said. He said there was also a feeling of “high degree of alienation” among large sections of people of the trouble-torn state. “We have a huge displaced population, whether it is the Kashmiri Pandits or whether it is a section of the Sikh population. Even some Kashmiri Muslims had to leave the Valley because of this situation,” Abdullah said. He said nothing had been done to bring this section of people back. “Let’s not forget that the BJP promised to take concrete steps to rehabilitate the Kashmiri Pandits and bring them back into the Valley. That has not happened,” he said. [caption id=“attachment_3138376” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File image of Omar Abdullah. PTI[/caption] “I think whichever way you choose to measure the performances of both the state and the central governments, they have disappointed us more,” the National Conference leader said. He said the roles and responsibilities of interlocutor Dineshwar Sharma were not clear and added that he was not sure what the initiative would do to benefit the state. To a question, he said all the political parties needed to put more efforts to remove the feeling of alienation among the people of Kashmir. “The entire population is not alienated, but there is a large section of population,” he said. “The National Conference, the PDP, the Congress, the BJP and other political parties, we need to do more to bring this alienated population back into our fold,” said the Leader of Opposition in the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly. According to him, there are two facets to the problem in Jammu and Kashmir: the external dimension which is with Pakistan and the internal dimension. On the external front, he said though Prime Minister Narendra Modi started well by inviting his then Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif for his swearing in ceremony in May 2014, the initiative did not bear any fruit. Abdullah also claimed that the Jammu and Kashmir government, led by Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, has failed to reach out to the people of the state (referring to the internal dimension). He was in Hyderabad to participate in an event organised by real estate developers’ body CREDAI on Friday.