On his first foreign trip as minister of state for external affairs, Omar Abdullah has done some plain speaking on the Kashmir issue, rebutting Pakistan's claim that an indigenous freedom struggle was going on there and attacking the Hurriyat Conference leaders for depending on Pakistani money and gun.
Abdullah, who is on a four-day visit to Saudi Arabia, a close ally of Islamabad, was asked a volley of questions on Kashmir at a press conference in Jeddah on Thursday night.

In reply to a question about Hurriyat Conference, he said that these people have no representative character in the state and moreover, these people had been ministers and MLAs under the same constitution that they are criticising now. It is Pakistani money and gun that make them change their stand.

Bureau Report