Jammu

Omar Abdullah on Monday condemned the shooting incident outside a venue in Washington where Donald Trump was present, saying violence has no place in politics and expressing relief that he survived.

“Thank God he survived, and I did not want anything to happen to him,” Abdullah said while speaking to reporters on the sidelines of an event in Jammu.

Trump, Melania Trump, J D Vance and other officials were evacuated unharmed after a gunman allegedly opened fire outside the venue hosting the annual White House Correspondents' Association Dinner on Sunday.

Calling politics a “dirty thing,” Abdullah said differences should be resolved verbally and democratically, not through violence. He added that attacks on political leaders are unacceptable anywhere.

Referring to Jammu and Kashmir, he said the region had witnessed decades of violence in which workers and leaders from parties including the Bharatiya Janata Party, National Conference, Indian National Congress and Communist Party of India (Marxist) had lost their lives.

On tensions in West Asia, Abdullah strongly supported continued dialogue, even through alternative channels, after reports of cancelled US envoy-level talks in Pakistan concerning Iran.

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He said peace must be restored and tensions should end permanently, adding that Iran should be allowed to live in peace.