Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Tuesday said there was a need to defeat the ideology of terrorism which could be achieved only after delinking religion from it.

He said while the security personnel were responsible for bringing down militancy in the state, equal credit must be given to the common people who have braved the menace all these years and suffered the most.

In his first conference after assuming the office of the state on Monday , Omar said terrorism has emerged as one of the biggest enemies of global peace.

“Within our country, every big and small terrorist incidents tends to threaten communal harmony and mutual brotherhood.

“This should not be allowed at any cost because terrorism has no religion and no religion permits terrorism. I can say it with confidence that my religion, Islam, neither preaches nor condones killing of innocent people, whoever they are and which ever community and country they belong to,” he said, adding those who kill in the name of religion are ignorant and mislead.

“While dealing firmly with the terrorists is necessary, it is more important to defeat the ideology of terrorism. This is possible only through unity and by delinking religion from terrorism,” he said.

Omar said there had been cases where people of this country had taken to militancy because of perceived deprivation and grievances.

“We need to get to the root of the problem and find out if there are any grievances that are leading certain people to militancy and terrorism. If there are, those need to be addressed and sorted out, as best as we can,” he said.