Hundreds of individuals, led by the chief minister of Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK), chanted slogans and organized a demonstration in New Delhi on Monday, demanding that the region be granted statehood—seven years after it was reclassified as a federal territory.
Authorities prevented the protesters from carrying out their march, according to a post by Omar Abdullah on X, which included videos and photos of people holding signs and shouting slogans.
“This is just the start of our fight for statehood, our rights, our dignity, and everything else that has been taken from us,” Abdullah stated in his post.
In August 2019, Prime Minister Narendra Modi annulled the region’s semi-autonomous status, stripped it of its statehood, and split it into two federally governed territories: Muslim-majority Kashmir with Hindu-majority Jammu, and the Buddhist region of Ladakh.
Since then, the government has stated that statehood for the disputed Himalayan area will be restored at the “appropriate time,” but no specific deadline has been provided.
Abdullah and his party, the Jammu and Kashmir National Conference, insist that statehood should be reinstated as soon as possible, in line with the government’s promise.
Members of Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party accuse the protest of being an effort to distract from what they describe as governance failures by Abdullah’s administration.