SRINAGAR, Nov 21: National Conference leader and Member Parliament Agha Ruhullah today said that peace in Jammu and Kashmir cannot be achieved by disempowering and dividing the people of the region and demanded a probe into the Nowgam blast. Speaking to reporters in Tral after offering condolences to the family of crime photographer Javid Mansoor Rather, who was killed in the Nowgam explosion, he said that peace requires democratic and political empowerment, not the creation of second-class citizens, if terrorism is to be defeated.
He added that people of all faiths, including Hindus, Muslims, Kashmiris and non-Kashmiris, have made sacrifices in the fight against violence and stressed that unity, not alienation, brings peace. Calling the Nowgam incident a result of negligence, he demanded a time-bound and impartial investigation, alleging that untrained individuals were forced to handle explosive material. He said that people such as a tailor and a Naib Tehsildar were made to work with explosives, which was not their responsibility, and called for accountability and punishment for those responsible.
The MP urged the government to provide full compensation to the families of the deceased and injured and to offer government jobs where needed to support them. He said that Kashmiris felt empowered before the revocation of Article 370 and now feel disempowered, warning that this growing alienation must be addressed to strengthen the fight against militancy.
He stated that alienation aids terrorism while empowerment strengthens peace. Ruhullah said the central government’s claim that abrogating Article 370 would end militancy was false and merely propaganda, arguing that recent attacks, including the Nowgam blast, show that terrorism is unrelated to the constitutional change. He added that the 2019 move was justified through propaganda rather than democratic or constitutional principles and reiterated that linking Article 370 with terrorism was a lie used to validate an undemocratic step, noting that violence existed both before and after 2019.
