J&K Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Friday (January 30, 2026) said the attacks on Kashmiris outside were forcing local youth to look inwards for livelihood. Meanwhile, Kashmir chief cleric Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and BJP leader Ashok Kaul also condemned such incidents.
Referring to an attack on two Kashmiri shawl sellers in Uttarakhand two days ago, Mr. Abdullah said, “Unlike other States, I cannot ask my people to leave J&K and seek employment elsewhere. We have seen what our people have faced outside in recent times, whether it was in Himachal Pradesh or what happened recently in Uttarakhand. As a result, our people are now looking inward rather than going outside.”
Mr. Abdullah said J&K has to build a strong start-up ecosystem for employment within, “to protect our people and provide them with sustainable opportunities”.
Though the Uttarakhand police lodged a First Information Report (FIR) and arrested an accused on Thursday (January 29, 2026), there has been no let-up in condemnation in Kashmir. Hurriyat chairman and cleric Mirwaiz raised the issue in the Friday sermon at Jama Masjid in Srinagar.
“The brutal assault with iron rods on 18-year-old Kashmiri shawl vendor Tabish and his brother Danish in Uttarakhand’s Vikas Nagar area reflects the disturbing pattern of communal profiling and hostility faced by ordinary Kashmiris outside J&K,” the Mirwaiz said.
