Omar govt to hold special cabinet meet in Pahalgam today

The Jammu and Kashmir government, under chief minister Omar Abdullah’s leadership, will hold a special cabinet meeting in Pahalgam on Tuesday, a move intended as a powerful message against terrorism and violence in the Union territory, officials said.

This is the first time the cabinet meeting will take place outside the usual summer capital, Srinagar, or winter capital, Jammu, during this government’s tenure.

The choice of Pahalgam aims to show solidarity with the residents of the tourist town, which has experienced a sharp decline in tourist footfall since the April 22 terror attack that resulted in the deaths of 26 people, 25 tourists and a local.

Although the meeting’s agenda is not yet public, officials stressed that the gathering’s significance lies more in its symbolic communication to anti-national and anti-social elements that violence has no place in Jammu and Kashmir.

Abdullah, during his first stint as the chief minister of erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir from 2009-14, had held cabinet meetings in remote areas like Gurez, Machil, Tangdhar of north Kashmir and Rajouri and Poonch areas of Jammu region.

The decision to hold a special cabinet meeting comes two days after Omar on Saturday proposed a dual approach to resuscitate Jammu and Kashmir tourism sector, severely impacted by the Pahalgam terror attack, urging the Centre to mandate PSUs to hold meetings in Kashmir and to convene parliamentary committee meetings there.

He had made this appeal at the governing council meeting of the NITI Aayog under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.