Srinagar:
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said that the Pahalgam attack has undone years of work both in terms of economy and diplomacy. It has given a jolt to the state’s tourism — which had recovered after a long time — and allowed Pakistan to flag Kashmir in the international community again.
“We are in a place where We didn’t expect to be. We are in a place where there has been Bloodshed suffering. Turmoil upheaval… Everything has changed. And yet in some ways nothing has,” Mr Abdullah has told NDTV in an exclusive interview.
Asked how has the change translated, he said at this time of the year, “We should have been full with tourists, booming economy, children should have been at school, airports should have been functioning with 50-60 flights a day”.
But now, the Valley is empty, schools had to be closed, the airport and airspace are closed.
“Yet when I say nothing has changed — Pakistan has, by design, unfortunately again, managed to internationalise the question of Jammu and Kashmir,” he said. “The US, which seems to be keen to inject itself in the role of a moderator, interlocutor,” he added.
“The ceasefire, which until the last few days had held in spite of whatever other difficulties exist in the relations between India and Pakistan — today that ceasefire is in tatters. We await to see what happens tonight,” he added.
So in some ways, he said, so little has changed.
“When we see just three weeks ago, it was a bustling place. Bahalga was full of tourists. And then that horrible massacre,” he said.
On April 22, terrorists struck at Kashmir’s scenic Baisaran meadow, shooting down 26 people after conducting religious profiling. Twenty-five of them were tourists, one a local man — a ponywallah who was trying to save the tourists.
Days later India conducted Operation Sindoor — striking at terror cams at nine locations in Pakistan and Pakistan-Occupied-Kashmir.
The day after, Pakistan launched a drone and missile attack, backed by artillery firing in the border areas.
Islamabad, though, capitulated after four days when India targetted Pakistan’s airbases, command centers, military infrastructure and air defense systems across the western front.
