National Conference vice president Omar Abdullah on Sunday said the spike in terrorist attacks in the recent past would be no justification to delay assembly elections, which were held even in 1996 when militancy was at its peak in Jammu and Kashmir.

“Some people are saying the situation has deteriorated and hence, there should be no elections. What happened to you? Are we so weak or the situation worsened so much that there are no chances of holding elections? We held elections in 1996 and you have to agree that there is a difference of heaven and earth between the situation at that time and today," he said.

“Those who do not want to hold elections (in J&K) should tell that we are bowing before the gun-toting forces and are accepting defeat, besides ignoring the sacrifices of our forces. You tell our enemies that we will lay down without fighting,” he said. 

“If you want to bow before such forces then don’t go for the (assembly) elections. We have no objection because this election is taking place on the orders of the Supreme Court which has set a deadline of September 30.

“You say in the Supreme Court the situation is not conducive for holding assembly polls and we are bowing before the forces who over the past (three) years martyred our 55 bravehearts. If you want to ignore and waste their sacrifices, we will bear the decision silently as there is nothing else we can do,” Abdullah told reporters on the sidelines of a public rally at Gurha Slathia in the Samba district.

He said there are such forces across the neighbouring country which do not want friendly ties between the two countries.

“We know they won’t desist from their activities but somehow we were also found off-guard,” he said, criticising Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha for delaying the joint high-level meeting held in Jammu on Saturday to chalk out a strategy to tackle growing terror incidents.

Omar said the meeting should have been called a long time after the first terror incident. “Why he waited for so long? It was only after we started raising the concern, the meeting was convened,” he said.

Earlier, addressing a gathering, Omar said, “We have to face these forces bravely but this is not expected under their rule.”

“When they took over from us in January 2015, the situation was altogether different as we had cleared all areas of Jammu region of the scourge of terrorism. Despite their claims post (August) 2019 (when J&K’s special status was revoked and the erstwhile state was bifurcated into two Union Territories), there is no place which is not facing the looming threat of terror attacks,” he said.

“Not only they failed to ensure the development of J&K, but our security has also been compromised, which is evident from the attacks, resulting in loss of precious lives of our brave personnel. They are least bothered about all these,” he said.

Omar said from Kathua to Reasi and Rajouri to Doda, there hardly passes any day when there is no news of a terror attack on the forces.