Srinagar, Nov 6 (UNI) Former Union minister and senior Congress leader Prof Saifuddin Soz on Friday said that people of the Jammu and Kashmir expect mainstream political parties to continue their struggle for the restoration of Special Status.

In a statement here this afternoon Prof Soz alleged that the vested interests and a section of the Administration, is deliberately misleading public opinion on the question of the J&K State’s Special Status and its restoration.

“What the people of the State demand is the restoration of Article 370 of the Constitution of India or its exact statutory equivalent. What a section of Administration in the state speaks of, is the restoration of statehood from Union Territory back to Jammu and Kashmir State”, he said.

Prof Soz said it was a folly on the part of the Central Government to have reduced the status of the J&K state into a Union Territory.

UNI BAS PS1534