New Delhi: Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah on Wednesday (November 19) criticised both the Centre and the Lieutenant Governor’s administration accusing them of failing to prevent recurring security breaches in the Union Territory despite repeated claims since 2019 – after the abrogation of Article 370 – that peace had returned to the region.

He argued that although New Delhi has consistently projected the post-Article 370 period as an era of stability, violence and civilian casualties have persisted under their direct oversight. Abdullah made these remarks after meeting families of those who were killed in the recent explosion at the Nowgam police station in Srinagar. 

“We were told that after 2019, this whole thing would stop, but it didn’t happen,” he said, adding, “If it is not exploding in Delhi, it is exploding here. Innocent people are losing their lives.”

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Abdullah underlined the incident was another reminder that the assurances given in the aftermath of the constitutional changes five years ago had not materialised. Further, he lamented that J&K residents had endured more than three decades of turmoil and insisted that the cycle of bloodshed must finally come to an end.

“Jammu and Kashmir has seen enough bloodshed in the last 30-35 years. We want this situation to stop now,” the chief minister said.

Noting that policing and security fall squarely under the lieutenant governor, who reports to the Centre, and therefore responsibility for the situation lies with them, Abdullah told reporters, “Why is this still happening? You should ask those responsible for our security. We don’t have that responsibility.”

On November 19, a blast at the Nowgam police station left nine people dead  and wounded more than 30 others. The deceased included a civilian, an inspector of the J&K police’s State Investigation Agency, three officials of the forensics department, two officials of J&K’s revenue department and two police photographers. The explosion involved material earlier seized in Faridabad, Haryana, as part of a larger terror investigation. Director general of the J&K police Nalin Prabhat termed the explosion that also damaged several buildings in the vicinity of the Nowgam police station as an “accident”.

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