Srinagar, Jun 15 (PTI) National Conference (NC) president Farooq Abdullah on Wednesday asked the people of Jammu and Kashmir to forge unity and fight for the common challenges together.

The former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir also said his party will continue to fight for the restoration of erstwhile state's special status, which was revoked by the Centre in 2019.

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"I see no way of achieving anything in J-K without a lasting unity between different sections of our society. We have to stop seeing ourselves as Hindu-Muslim, Shia-Suni, Bareli-Deobandi, Kashmiri-Dogra," Abdullah said at a party function here.

The NC president said unity in diversity is the only mantra to end the problems that crop up in the guise of poverty, unemployment and development.

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"Our mutual discord will make our descent into darkness. Divided we cannot achieve anything, let alone get back our abridged constitutional and democratic rights," he said.

Abdullah, also the Lok Sabha MP from Srinagar, said people, particularly the political class, have to see beyond the pale of their immediate narrow interests and work for what holds greater good for all sections of Jammu and Kashmir.

"The crescendo built up by the incumbent while rescinding our unique constitutional status has fizzled out. We witnessed towering promises made by the incumbent government getting buried without even a whimper.

"People have only been bombarded with overly-charged emotive rhetorical jingoism whose shrillness on the audibility scale has crossed all limits. Where is that progress? Where are those promised jobs? Where is the promised largess that was supposed to bridge Dil ki Duri and Dili Ki Doori?" he said.

(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)