No, al-Qaeda has no links in the Kashmir Valley, says Omar Abdullah

Jammu & Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah on Monday said militancy in the state had no links to al-Qaeda, though Osama bin Laden had talked about Kashmir as “unfinished agenda”.

“Osama from time to time had talked about Kashmir as one of his unfinished agendas, but in the two-and-half years as chairman of Unified Command, I am yet to be shown any piece of intelligence that suggests a link between al Qaeda, Osama and what happened in J&K,” Omar said during the bi-annual shifting of headquarters to summer capital city of Srinagar. The chief minister, however, hastened to add that there was an external dimension to militancy in the state.

Omar also played down media reports, which suggested Hizb-ul-Mujahideen owned Osama’s Abbottabad mansion. “Unless I have credible information, I will take it (the media reports) with a pinch of salt,” he said, adding that derailing talks with Pakistan would affect people in the Valley.

The CM noted that recent Indo-Pak bitterness would not affect the thaw in the relationship. “It is a fact that Pakistan warned about any sort of misadventure. I feel we are not thinking of any misadventure,” he said.

He also announced that the rehabilitation policy for youth stranded in PoK has received overwhelming response. “Around 600 to 700 applications have been received, of which 125 have been processed and cleared,” he said.