Jammu and Kashmir Governor Satya Pal Malik on Wednesday announced that the government would create 50,000 jobs in the state within three months, ANI reported.

“We today announce 50,000 jobs in J&K administration, we will appeal to the youth to get involved with full vigour, in coming two to three months we will fill these positions,” he added.

The governor said the Centre’s objective was to develop Jammu and Kashmir into a state that Pakistan-occupied Kashmir would like to emulate, The Indian Express reported.

At his first detailed press conference since the revocation of Jammu and Kashmir’s special status, Malik said every Kashmiri life was valuable. “There has been no civilian casualty, only the few who got violent are injured, they also have below-the-waist injuries,” he claimed.

The governor said mobile phone connectivity was being resumed in Kupwara and Handwara districts, and would be extended to other districts soon. “The medium of phone and internet is used less by us and mostly by terrorists and Pakistanis as well as for mobilisation and indoctrination,” he said. “It is a kind of weapon used against us so we have stopped it. Services will be resumed gradually.”

Malik deflected questions about political leaders detained in Kashmir, and said the longer they remained confined, the more they would benefit electorally. “Don’t be sad about the detention of political leaders, it will help them in their political careers,” Outlook quoted him as saying.

J&K Governor Satyapal Malik: We are opening mobile phone connectivity in Kupwara and Handwara districts(of Kashmir), soon we will open connectivity in other districts as well pic.twitter.com/MSpFPlwGav — ANI (@ANI) August 28, 2019

Malik also mocked Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for his stand on Kashmir, and called him a “political juvenile”. “Rahul Gandhi is a man from a prestigious family of the country, but he has behaved like a political juvenile,” he said. “The outcome of that [earlier statement] is that Pakistan has quoted his statement in its letter to the UN. He should not have done that.”

Earlier in the day, the Bharatiya Janata Party had claimed that by calling Kashmir India’s internal matter, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had made a U-turn after earlier insulting the country with his “irresponsible utterances” on the situation in the region.

Malik’s press conference in Srinagar came hours after the Supreme Court sought responses from the Centre and the state administration on a petition seeking the withdrawal of restrictions imposed on journalists in the state.

The restrictions were imposed on August 5, when the Union government scrapped Jammu and Kashmir’s special status in Constitution.

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