SRINAGAR: Union home minister Amit Shah will visit J&K next week, chief minister Omar Abdullah announced Monday. This will be Shah’s first trip to the Union Territory since last year’s assembly elections in which Omar’s National Conference (NC) won a landslide.
The CM insisted however, that Shah’s trip shouldn’t be linked with ongoing operations in Kathua where forces are battling terrorists. “He doesn’t have only a security agenda. Though he will review security, he will address people in Jammu. In Srinagar, he will review and inaugurate some development projects,” Omar said.
Between Dec 2024 and Feb this year, Shah held five security review meetings on J&K in New Delhi. “He (Shah) came here earlier and will come after this visit as well. We are in touch with him. Last year, we sought more funds and assistance from him, which the Centre provided,” Omar said, expecting the support to continue.
In previous years, the CM recalled that home ministers at the Centre had regularly travelled to J&K. “When J&K was a full-fledged state and I was its chief minister, there were several visits of home ministers,” Omar said, citing P Chidambaram and Sushilkumar Shinde from UPA govt as as examples.
