Farooq Abdullah urges Pakistan to stop violence, find way to form friendship with India

Srinagar: National Conference president Farooq Abdullah on Friday said attacks like the one in Gulmarg would continue to occur until India and Pakistan found a way to be friends and that would end Jammu and Kashmir's troubles.

Two soldiers and two Army porters were killed on Thursday after terrorists ambushed a force vehicle near Gulmarg in north Kashmir's Baramulla district. Another soldier and a porter were injured in the attack.

"Such attacks will continue to take place in this state. You know where they come from and it will not stop until some way is found to get out of this trouble. I have been witnessing it for the last 30 years, innocent people are getting killed," Abdullah told reporters.

"We are not going to become a part of Pakistan. So, why are they doing this? To disrupt our future? To make us poorer?" he asked.

The former chief minister of the erstwhile Jammu and Kashmir state said rather than fomenting trouble in the Union Territory, Pakistan should look towards its own plight and work for its betterment.

"They are getting ruined themselves but are ruining us as well," he said.

Abdullah appealed to Pakistan to stop the violence and find a way to form a friendship with India.

"If they don't find a way, the future will be very difficult," he said.

The National Conference president also paid tribute to the two porters and the two soldiers killed in Thursday's attack.

"I pay my tribute to those who have been martyred. I apologise to their families," he said.

Asked if he thought Pakistan was frustrated by the record turnout in the recent assembly elections, Abdullah said he did not know what happened.

"People voted in the assembly polls and now the assembly will work for the people. We hope the Centre grants full statehood so that the government is able to work for the people," he said.

On Chief Minister Omar Abdullah's recent meetings with the prime minister and Union ministers in Delhi, the senior Abdullah said coordination with the Centre was needed for smooth functioning of the Jammu and Kashmir government.

"When I was the chief minister, I used to say this every time that coordination is a good thing because everything is with them," he said.