J&K leaders demand Statehood, decry Pulwama, Pahalgam ‘security failures’

Jammu and Kashmir deputy chief minister Surinder Kumar Choudhary said on Wednesday (July 23, 2025) that the Pahalgam terror attack took place even though the former State has been governed by the Union government for the past 11 years.

“How did Baisaran [Pahalgam] happen? How did Pulwama (2019 terror attack) happen? Why has corruption not stopped yet? When the same government which snatched our Statehood has been governing J&K for the past 11 years,” Mr. Choudhary said while speaking at a public meeting – Statehood Now, organised by The Forum for Human Rights in Jammu and Kashmir.

As many as 26 civilians were killed at Baisaran meadow in Pahalgam on April 22 in a terror attack. The terrorists who carried out the attack are yet to be arrested.

Former J&K Chief Minister and National Conference president Farooq Abdullah said that the “silent majority” should speak for J&K’s Statehood.

Referring to the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls in Bihar, Mr. Abdullah said, “You are disenfranchising Muslim, Dalits and Adivasis in Bihar Where is Gandhi’s Bharat? They look at us through the lens of religion and language. This is not my India. I want India where we all exists as people, irrespective of religion, language and area one comes from. People in power want us to bow before them, we are not here to beg. Restore our Statehood,” Mr. Abdullah said.

Congress MP Manish Tewari said that the Supreme Court verdict essentially said that the procedure which was adopted to abrogate Article 370 was wrong but the abrogation was correct. “This is a very strange idea and I am not making this up. This is the SC judgment which I have read,” Mr. Tewari said.

Sajjad Kargili of Kargil Democratic Alliance (KDA) said that Ladakh has been “cheated and disenfranchised.” “The J&K Reorganisation Act should be reversed, our land is under threat, Mr. Kargili said.

The special status of J&K under Article 370 of the Constitution was revoked by the Parliament on August 5, 2019 and the former State was split into two Union Territories- J&K and Ladakh.

The Assembly elections were held in the Union Territory of J&K in September 2024 but restoration of Statehood, an assurance given by the Union Government to the Supreme Court, is yet to be done.

Former Union Home Secretary G.K Pillai said that the Supreme Court should have taken a view on restoring Statehood and not merely left the decision to the government.