Jammu: J&K Chief Minister Omar Abdullah will visit Saudi Arabia on November 24 for the Umrah pilgrimage (a non-Haj pilgrimage).
“Alhumdullilah political clearance has come. I will be travelling to Saudi Arabia on Monday to perform Umrah and to offer prayers at Al Masjid an Nabawi (SAW) (The Prophet’s (PBUH) Mosque) in Medina,” the Chief Minister wrote on X.
The Umrah is an Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, the holiest city for Muslims, located in the Hejazi region of Saudi Arabia.
Umrah can be undertaken at any time of the year, in contrast to the Ḥajj which has specific dates according to the Islamic lunar calendar.
Omar Abdullah won the J&K Assembly elections from two constituencies in Ganderbal and Budgam. He lost the Lok Sabha election to Engineer Rashid in the Baramulla constituency.
Omar later resigned from the Budgam seat and chose to represent the Ganderbal Assembly constituency in the 90-member J&K Legislative Assembly.
The ruling National Conference (NC) won 42 seats in the assembly elections. Later, six independent candidates decided to support the government headed by Omar Abdullah.
Congress with six members, CPI (M) with one and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) with one seat also decided to support the Omar Abdullah-led government.
Congress decided to support the government from the outside. JKPCC President, Tariq Hameed Karra said that the Congress would not join the J&K government as long as it remained a UT.
The J&K Cabinet in its first meeting passed a resolution seeking restoration of statehood while the assembly in its first session passed a resolution for restoration of special status which was available to J&K till Article 370 was abrogated by the Parliament on August 5, 2019.
Omar Abdullah personally submitted the resolution for statehood passed by his Cabinet to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Union Home Minister Amit Shah during his first visit to New Delhi after becoming the Chief Minister of J&K for the second time.
