Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Monday took an autorickshaw to reach Jantar Mantar for a protest demanding the restoration of statehood to Jammu and Kashmir.
NC leaders and workers, led by party president Dr. Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah, had assembled in the national capital on the opening day of Parliament’s Monsoon Session to press for the immediate restoration of statehood.
Sharing a video of the autorickshaw ride on X, Omar Abdullah wrote, “My walk from Jantar Mantar was about to turn into another procession, so we grabbed the first available means of transport.”
His sons, Zamir and Zaheer, were also seen in the video. After reaching Prithviraj Road, the Chief Minister paid the autorickshaw driver ₹500.
The protest, initially planned at Jantar Mantar, was shifted to the nearby Constitution Club after permission was denied. However, Omar Abdullah was also stopped from reaching the venue and later staged a sit-in with party supporters on Ashoka Road.
Accusing the Union Government of suppressing the protest, Omar Abdullah asserted that the campaign for restoring Jammu and Kashmir’s statehood would continue.
In another post on X, he wrote, “We were stopped from getting to Jantar Mantar & stopped from protesting peacefully for what is rightfully ours, but we were not silenced. This is only the beginning of our struggle for statehood, our rights, our dignity and everything that was taken away from us.”(KINS)
