Srinagar: Lashing out at a Delhi-based news channel for calling him ‘anti-national’ over demanding autonomy, National Conference (NC) vice-president Omar Abdullah said autonomy is not a ‘pro-Pakistan’ agenda as the neighbouring country has never supported its restoration in Jammu and Kashmir.

Mr Abdullah, in an apparent reference to the news channel and BJP, said, ‘You guys won’t be happy until every Muslim living in India is pushed out & the easiest way to do that is to paint them as anti-Indian & worse still pro-Pakistani. Such an easy slur to paint all of us with.’

‘Since when have demands within the purview of the Constitution of India become anti-national? J&K acceded to the Union of India on the basis of the autonomy that was given. What’s wrong in asking for its restoration? “Omar echos Imran” – Is this ignorance or just TRP hunting?’ Mr Abdullah, who is the former chief minister of the state, wrote on micro-blogging site twitter.

Mr Abdullah said he would have expected this nonsense from the North Korean channels, but ‘you guys are really no better handling these discussions’.

“Autonomy is NOT pro-Pak agenda. Pakistan has never supported the restoration of autonomy to J&K,” he added.

He said if his and his party’s agenda had been “pro-Pak”, he wouldn’t have lost 1000s of colleagues to the bullets and bombs of ‘Pakistan-backed’ militants. “This ignorance would be laughable if it wasn’t so damn infuriating,” he said.

Mr Abdullah on Wednesday said that granting autonomy is the only practical solution to the decades-old problem of Jammu and Kashmir.