Srinagar, Jul 1 (PTI) NC president Farooq Abdullah on Friday said peace in Jammu and Kashmir cannot be achieved by feeding bitter medicines to its people but only by restoring their "fettered" constitutional rights.

Interacting with delegations from Kargil, and north, south and central parts of Kashmir at his residence here, the National Conference leader said it is the obligation of the people of Jammu and Kashmir to light the candle of democracy again in the union territory.

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"Peace in Jammu and Kashmir cannot be achieved by feeding bitter medicines to our people. It can only be achieved by restoring their fettered constitutional and democratic rights," Abdullah said.

"It is our obligation, as responsible citizens, to light the candle of democracy again in J-K and there is a need for a united, constitutional and democratic struggle for the restoration of people's abridged constitutional, democratic and human rights.

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"I see no way of achieving anything in J-K without a lasting unity between different sections of our society," he said.

"We have to stop seeing ourselves as Hindu-Muslim, Shia-Suni, Bareli-Deobandi, Kashmiri-Dogra binaries. Unity in diversity must be our creed to last for all time and under all circumstances, otherwise there is no end in sight to our common problems in the shape of poverty, unemployment, and development," he added.

The Lok Sabha MP from Srinagar alleged that the people of Jammu and Kashmir are being discriminated against at every level.

"There are no exceptions to this wanton democratic decline in Jammu and Kashmir. Our party had particularly suffered immensely for strengthening the roots of democracy in the region.

"We lost a number of our workers and leaders in the struggle. Unfortunately, the democratic march towards strengthening the institutions started by us at the cost of shouldering the coffins of our colleagues remains in suspended mode," he said.

Abdullah said the people of Jammu and Kashmir are at the epicentre of an emerging situation marked by widespread development deficit, pervasive unemployment, deepening alienation, unprecedented administrative inertia and insecurity.

The Centre revoked the special status of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir on August 5, 2019, and divided it into two union territories -- Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh.

(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)