Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah on Thursday demanded the harshest punishment for those behind the Delhi blast but delivered a pointed warning against branding all Kashmiris as terrorists.
His remarks came amid rising tension following the Red Fort car explosion that killed 13 people and injured several others on November 10.
“Every resident of Jammu and Kashmir is not a terrorist. Not every Kashmiri is on the side of terrorists. It is only a handful of people who have tried to disturb the peace and harmony here,” Abdullah said, calling for restraint and reason as national outrage grows.
The blast, triggered by an explosives-laden car driven by Dr Umar Nabi of south Kashmir’s Pulwama, has exposed an expanding terror network spanning Kashmir, Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh.
Hours before the explosion, police recovered 360 kg of suspected ammonium nitrate and a cache of arms and ammunition from a rented flat in Faridabad.
The tenant, another Kashmiri doctor, Muzammil Ganaie, was later arrested along with seven others, most of them from Kashmir.
“These few people are responsible for this attack. Those who are guilty should be given the strictest punishment, and innocent people should not get caught in it,” Abdullah asserted, making it clear that justice must not turn into collective punishment.
He urged the country to distinguish between perpetrators and ordinary citizens.
“When we begin to look at every Kashmiri Muslim through the same lens and try to give the impression that every Kashmiri Muslim is a terrorist, it becomes very difficult to keep things on the right track,” he said.
Abdullah also questioned the administration’s past handling of suspected terror links, pointing to the detention of Dr Arif Nisar Dar from Srinagar’s SMHS Hospital, who was dismissed in 2023 by the Lt Governor for alleged terror connections.
“If you believed he had terror links and you had evidence, why didn’t you take that evidence to court? Why was he not prosecuted? Merely dismissing someone from service doesn’t end the matter—and today, we are seeing the result of that,” he said.