He said, “I believe that you can give Kashmir independence but you cannot give Kashmir freedom under the circumstances that prevail within the subcontinent. Even if India and Pakistan were somehow to decide to give the state independence, it will never be really free.”

Abdullah said the Valley needed political handling and not economic reconstruction packages and confidence-building measures. Abdullah also said, “It needs political handling. It’s not good enough that you give a Rs 24,000 crore economic reconstruction package or you announce all sorts of confidence-building measures. It’s essentially about the political solution that you need to work out there.”

Backing the recent agreement between the J&K Government and Shri Amarnath Sangharsh Samiti, he said, “The bottom line for me is that if you don’t agree with this agreement you might also turn around and say that you are against the yatra, because there is nothing in this (the agreement) that should give anybody a cause for concern.”