Omar Abdullah Says Kashmir Was Filming Hub Before Switzerland, Hopes Festival Revives Shoots
· India · Indian Express, Times of India
Jammu & Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, speaking on the sidelines of the 1st International Film Festival of Jammu & Kashmir in Srinagar on September 7, 2026, said he hoped the event would remind the Indian film industry that Kashmir was once a preferred shooting destination before Switzerland and other countries. He said revived film shoots would generate local employment. Three days earlier, Abdullah had met Union Home Minister Amit Shah and told the media he remains in "constant touch" with Shah, listing statehood, business rules and the reservation issue among pending matters between J&K and the central government. On security, Abdullah urged the security establishment to take seriously recent threat letters sent to Kashmiri Pandit government employees, citing past targeted killings of migrants in the early 1990s. He also condemned the demolition of a mosque in Saharanpur, alleging the decisions were made "based on religion" and citing RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat's recent speech i
Why it matters
Abdullah is tying the film festival to a concrete economic pitch — restoring film shoots in Kashmir as a source of local jobs — while simultaneously signalling on hard security and communal issues that predate his recent meeting with Amit Shah, putting statehood and reservation back on the J&K–Centre agenda.
Read the original report — Indian Express
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