In a departure from the government’s stated stand, Omar Abdullah said on Monday: “The youth [of the Valley] did not take up guns for bijli, pani, sadaq [power, water and roads], but for resolution of the Kashmir issue”.
“For 20 years if our youth took up guns, they did not do it for bijli pani and sadaq. If Sher-e-Kashmir Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah spent years and years in jail and exile and his associates made sacrifices it was for resolution of the Kashmir issue,” the chief minister told a gathering at Magam in Badgam district.
Officially, the government maintains that the armed struggle is terrorism.
