Mehbooba Mufti demands restoration of Jammu &Kashmir’s special status

SRINAGAR: Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chief Mehbooba Mufti on Saturday demanded restoration of special status of J&K for “peace in the subcontinent”. She was addressing a public rally in the southern district of Kulgam.
Mehbooba said for everlasting peace in Kashmir, Government of India must restore the special status of J&K, which they snatched illegally on August 5, 2019, by nullifying Article 370 and scrapping Article 35A. She also demanded that the Centre must resolve the Kashmir issue through dialogue.
Meanwhile, People’s Conference (PC) chairman Sajad Lone lashed out at regional party heads for evading demand for restoration of Article 370 during a virtual all-party meet of 19 opposition parties on Friday, which was chaired by Congress chief Sonia Gandhi. PC was not part of the all-party meet. Sajad asserted that the silence of the 19 parties on Articles 370 and 35A is tantamount to an “endorsement of abrogation” of the same.
“The meeting of 19 opposition parties by selectively parroting the demand for statehood (of J&K) and criminal silence on Articles 370 & 35A has endorsed the revocation of special status of J&K. In a statement issued after the meeting, there was no mention of repealing the decisions taken by the BJP government on August 5th 2019 (sic),” Sajad said in a statement.
He maintained that the opposition has buried the people’s demand for bringing back Articles 370 and 35A, and the domicile rights of J&K.
“Two senior leaders Farooq Abdullah of NC and Mehbooba Mufti attended the meeting. They failed to convince the opposition parties to put restoration of Articles 370 and 35A, and domicile rights on their agenda. Why did these senior leaders attend the meeting when they could not persuade the opposition parties about the demands put forward in the Gupkar Declaration,” he asked.