Not all Kashmiris terrorists, says J&K CM Omar Abdullah amid Delhi blast probe

Srinagar (TIP)- Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Thursday, Nov 13, called for the strictest punishment against those involved in the Delhi blast, but added that the actions of a “handful of people” must not define the majority of peace-loving residents of the Union Territory, PTI reported.
“Every resident of Jammu and Kashmir is not a terrorist,” the news agency quoted the National Conference leader as having told reporters. “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.”
On Monday evening, a car exploded near the Red Fort metro station in Delhi, leaving 13 persons dead. While no details have been officially provided yet about what caused the blast, the police have filed a case under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act and the Explosives Act.
Reports have alleged that Umar Nabi, a resident of Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama district, was in the car that exploded. Reports have also claimed that Nabi was a key figure in a terror network spanning Kashmir, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh.
Hours before the blast, the police said that it had cracked an “inter-state and transnational terror module” in Haryana’s Faridabad and Uttar Pradesh’s Saharanpur. Two doctors from Kashmir – Adeel Ahmad Rather and Muzamil Shakeel – are among those arrested in the alleged case. Shakeel, a doctor, taught at Al-Falah University at Dhauj in the Faridabad district. Two more persons from the university – Umar Mohammed and Shaheen Shahid – have been taken into custody in the case.
On Wednesday, the Union government described the blast as a “terrorist incident, perpetrated by anti-national forces”. Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Abdullah underscored the need to distinguish between perpetrators and the general populace, PTI reported.
“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,” the news agency quoted the chief minister as saying.
Abdullah said that those responsible for the attack in the national capital should be brought to justice and given the harshest punishment but innocent persons must not be harassed in the process.
In the backdrop of the blast and the terror module case, the Jammu and Kashmir Police on Wednesday conducted raids at more than 300 locations in the Kashmir valley allegedly linked to persons affiliated with the banned Jamaat-e-Islami.