New Delhi: Statehood in Jammu and Kashmir will be restored as promised before, Union Home Minister Amit Shah has said, without giving any timeline.
Shah said at the “Times Now Summit 2025” Friday night that assembly elections were held in Jammu and Kashmir peacefully last year.
“We have given the assurance that statehood will be restored. From the very beginning, we have said that statehood would be given. But it can’t be disclosed when it will be given at a public forum,” he said when asked about the timeline for the restoration of statehood.
When Article 370 was abrogated and the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir was bifurcated into two Union territories in 2019, Shah had said in Parliament that the statehood of Jammu and Kashmir would be restored at an appropriate time.
“This was the first election in Kashmir after 40 years in which there was no re-polling in any place. Not a single tear gas or bullet was fired. Sixty percent of people exercised their franchise, this is a huge change,” he said.
Asked about the prevailing security situation, Shah said as the Union Home Minister he got three problems as legacy issues: Naxal violence, terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir and insurgency in the Northeast.
“In last 10 years, 16,000 youths have surrendered in these three theatres. As the Home Minister of the country, it is my duty to bring peace in all these places. It is the priority of the Prime Minister and naturally it is my priority too,” he added.
