Jammu, Oct 31 (PTI) The Congress and the National Conference on Tuesday lashed out at the BJP over the observance of the Union Territory Foundation Day in Jammu and Kashmir and demanded the restoration of statehood and early Assembly polls.

While the Congress staged a peaceful protest here, the NC said the bifurcation of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir has demeaned the glory of the Dogra community.

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Both parties demanded the restoration of statehood for Jammu and Kashmir and a democratically elected government.

On August 5, 2019, the Centre revoked the special status of Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370 of the Constitution and bifurcated it into union territories of Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh.

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The Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, which contains provisions to divide the state into two union territories came into effect from October 31, 2019.

The over-hour-long protest led by Pradesh Congress Committee president Vikar Rasool Wani outside party headquarters at Shaheedi Chowk was part of the party's announcement of observing the UT foundation day by the Jammu and Kashmir administration as “black day”.

Carrying placards in support of their demand for restoration of statehood and holding of early assembly elections, the protesters, including former ministers and legislators, raised slogans against the UT administration -- that held a series of functions across all the 20 districts to celebrate the day -- and the BJP.

NC vice president Omar Abdullah said the UT foundation day was not a day of celebration, but of mourning.

"There is nothing to celebrate about the day. Should we celebrate the downgrading of our state or the snatching of our democratic rights? In reality, today is a day of mourning and sorrow for the people of Jammu and Kashmir, today is a black day for us,” Abdullah said.

“October 31 is yet another dark patch in the history of J&K marking the illegal and unconstitutional infringement on the rights of its people,” Abdullah added.

He made these comments while addressing a one-day party convention in Tangdhar area of Kupwara on his two-day tour of north Kashmir. “Nothing has been done except humiliating our state by bifurcating it and then downgrading it to UT,” he said. The NC vice president said until we have “honour, recognition, identity and dignity, everything else is meaningless”. He said the government is very well aware of the catastrophic drug addiction problem in J&K “but someone is turning a blind eye so that this drug business goes on”.

Senior NC leader Rattan Lal Gupta said the BJP has rubbed salt into the wounds of the people of Jammu and Kashmir by celebrating the foundation day.

"It has demeaned the glory of the Dogra community as it was on this day that the erstwhile J&K state was downgraded and cut into pieces," Gupta, who is the Jammu provincial president of the party, said.

He said people having the slightest idea of the formation of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir know well how bravely Dogra ruler Maharaja Gulab Singh and his late General Zorawar Singh fought to expand his empire up to China and Tibet thus making it one of the biggest states in the country.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)