Razing houses won’t improve things, says Omar Abdullah

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Thursday cautioned against wanton retributive action in the wake of a terror attack in Anantnag that killed a policeman on Wednesday, saying violence cannot be brought to an end without carrying the people along.

“I understand the anger of the police, but the Supreme Court has issued an order stating that summary action of this kind should not be taken. “We witnessed a similar situation after the Pahalgam attack (in April 2025) when some people’s houses were bulldozed. At that time, I had to speak to the Central government to stop the trend,” Abdullah told reporters here.

The remarks followed after the authorities demolished the houses of two Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorists in Anantnag, hours after head constable Ashiq Hussain was shot dead in south Kashmir.

The houses of Adil Thokar and Haroon Rashid Ganaie, both active terrorists, were razed to the ground on the intervening night of Wednesday-Thursday, officials said. Constable Ashiq Hussain, who was on Amarnath Yatra security duty, was shot dead by a lone terrorist at the Lal Chowk in Anantnag on Wednesday afternoon.

Abdullah said that during the investigation into last year’s Pahalgam terror attack, “it turned out that not a single local was involved and all the attackers had come from outside”. “Demolishing houses or making thousands of arrests will not improve the situation; in fact, it will only worsen it,” he said. Pointing to his previous stint as chief minister of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir, Abdullah said that based on his experience, the cycle of violence cannot be brought to an end without taking the people along.

“We can reach a certain point using the police, Army and the CRPF, but the real end will come only when the general public stands together against such violence.”