Member of Parliament and National Conference President, Farooq Abdullah, on Saturday  said here that he never sought “azaadi” for Jammu and Kashmir and his demand for autonomy to the state as guaranteed in the Indian Constitution was being torn and twisted by the BJP and various other parties to create an impression as if “I was anti-national”.

Farooq, who was addressing a gathering of NC activists on his first visit to Jammu after being re-elected president of the party, said that war with Pakistan to reclaim the part of Kashmir under their occupation was not a wise proposition as India and Pakistan have already fought four wars on the Kashmir issue and achieved nothing. Senior NC leaders, Devinder Singh Rana and Ajay Sadhotra were among those present.

Haji-peer, which was of vital military importance for India and was captured from Pakistan during the 1965 war, had to be returned to Pakistan following the Tashkent agreement between the two countries. War has only created destruction on both sides with soldiers getting killed.

Invoking the Atal Bihari Vajpayee doctrine, Farooq said that the BJP stalwart and the then Prime Minister Vajpayee even after the Kargil war in 1999 had stressed that the sanctity of the line of control (LOC) has to be maintained.

Farooq stressed that the NC never sought independence for Kashmir and our only demand was to restore the special status of J&K as was provided in the Article 370 of the Indian Constitution.

He said that Mehbooba Mufti before becoming Chief Minister had been advocating “self-rule” in J&K, but after entering into an unholy alliance with BJP and coming to power she was “eroding” whatever was left of the special status. On one hand the people were demanding protection of the Article 35A, but Mehbooba has surrendered the financial autonomy by allowing extension of GST to Jammu and Kashmir, he alleged.

Farooq demanded that the centre should set up a commission and the Army chief ,Gen.Bipin Rawat, should also look into the plight of widows of soldiers who have been martyred in J&K.

He regretted that Sohan Lal, who was among the two NSG commandos killed earlier this week in a terror attack in North East, was not given the due honours by the state government during his cremation in a village of Nagrota in Jammu. The other soldier belonging to Mandi in Himachal Pradesh was cremated with state honours.