Pakistan fishes in the troubled waters of Jammu and Kashmir but they are not the creators of violent unrest in the Kashmir Valley, former chief minister Omar Abdullah said on Saturday.
Speaking at a Kashmir conclave in New Delhi, the opposition National Conference leader said he was aware that it was popular to blame Pakistan for everything that is happening in the troubled state.
“We know that Pakistan fishes in troubled waters, but we also know that they are not the creators of the sort of agitation that we have seen in 2008, 2010 and 2016,” Abdullah said.
The former Union minister of state for external affairs was referring to the three deadliest street protests the Kashmir Valley has witnessed in the nearly three-decades of separatist war.
New Delhi has been blaming Islamabad for inciting and sponsoring trouble in Jammu and Kashmir -- a charge Pakistan has been denying.
Abdullah said the blame for shrinking space for mainstream polity in Jammu and Kashmir needed to be shared by all, including the central government.