J&K's statehood should be restored before polls: Azad

Srinagar/New Delhi: Senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad on Tuesday called for the restoration of Jammu and Kashmir's statehood before conducting Assembly elections and batted for land and job rights for its residents, saying if laws providing such benefits were valid in other areas like Himachal Pradesh, why snatch them away from the erstwhile state.

The former Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha also said his party was waiting for the assurances that Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave at an all-party meeting on June 24 this year to be fulfilled.

Azad visited the Mata Kheer Bhawani temple — the revered shrine of Kashmiri Pandits nestled among mammoth chinar trees in the Tullamulla area of central Kashmir's Ganderbal district — and Hazratbal Shrine which houses a hair strand of Prophet Mohammad earlier in the day.

He was scheduled to visit both the shrines along with former Congress president Rahul Gandhi — who was on a two-day visit to J&K — but his flight from Delhi reached Srinagar airport late.

Speaking to reporters outside the temple complex, the former Chief Minister of J&K Azad also said Kashmiri Pandits who left the Valley in the early 1990s in the wake of eruption of militancy should be brought back.

"The (Assembly) elections... should be conducted soon. But before the elections, statehood should be restored, which is very important. Kashmiri Pandits should be brought back.

"Our land and job (rights), which were taken away after Article 370 was revoked, should be secured like they were before (August 5, 2019) through a new law when the statehood is restored," he said.

Azad reached Kheer Bhawani after Gandhi had left.

"I came from Delhi today, but the flight reached late and that is why we could not meet here. But since it was in my programme, I came here and will also go to Hazratbal," he said.

Asked about the BJP's charge that the Congress party had lost its credibility, Azad said: "Everyone knows who has the credibility."

After the Kheer Bhawani visit, Azad went to Hazratbal Shrine here to pay obeisance. Later, he joined Gandhi at the inauguration of Congress Bhawan at MA Road here.

Addressing the gathering, Azad said it was not Article 370 that gave the provision of the protection of land rights to J&K.

The senior Congress leader expressed hope that the assurances given by the Prime Minister at the all-party meeting will be fulfilled.