NEW DELHI: Thousands of people led by the chief minister of Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) shouted slogans and staged a protest in the capital New Delhi on Monday, demanding statehood for the Indian occupied region, seven years after it was turned into a federal territory.
Protesters were stopped by police from staging their demonstration, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said in a post on X, which had videos and pictures of people holding posters and shouting slogans.
“This is only the beginning of our struggle for statehood, our rights, our dignity and everything that was taken away from us,” Abdullah said in the post.
We were stopped from getting to Jantar Mantar & stopped from protesting peacefully for what is rightfully ours but we were not silenced. This is only the beginning of our struggle for statehood, our rights, our dignity and everything that was taken away from us. pic.twitter.com/tSMwtPLmqI
— Omar Abdullah (@OmarAbdullah) July 20, 2026
In August 2019, Prime Minister Narendra Modi revoked occupied region’s partial autonomy, removed its statehood and divided it into two federally controlled territories.
The government has since said statehood for the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir will be restored at the “appropriate time” but has not given a deadline.
“We wanted to protest peacefully, but they made us a target of tear gas. Democracy is being strangled,” says J&K CM Omar Abdullah.#ModiTeraWadaKyunRahaAadha pic.twitter.com/fzoWmzaB1K
— JKNC (@JKNC_) July 20, 2026
Abdullah and his party, the Jammu and Kashmir National Conference, have said statehood should be restored at the earliest, in keeping with the government’s promise.
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Political parties in Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir are united in demanding immediate restoration of statehood, exposing the PM Modi’s Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party’s isolation in the occupied territory. Meanwhile, the Modi government continued its policy of suppression and betrayal.
The demand for statehood has become the central point around which diverse voices in Indian occupied Jammu and Kashmir are converging.
National Conference President Farooq Abdullah, along with Congress outreach to senior Hurriyat leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, signal a broadening resistance front seeking genuine dialogue and restoration of rights.
The unity comes amid continued restrictions on Kashmiri leaders. Mirwaiz Umar Farooq’s residence remains under virtual confiscation with severe curbs, gagging the revered Hurriyat leader.
Observers said seven years after the illegal abrogation of Article 370, broken promises on statehood, ignored Indian Supreme Court directives, and relentless harassment reveal the BJP’s agenda of demographic engineering and total subjugation.
