Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, on December 13, 2025, sharply criticized the Centre’s narrative of normalcy in the region, pointing to the prolonged closure of key tourist destinations like parts of Gulmarg and Pahalgam following the deadly April 22, 2025, terror attack in Baisaran Valley that killed 26 civilians, mostly tourists. He argued these shutdowns—initially affecting around 50 spots without state consultation—send conflicting signals globally, confuse visitors, and contradict historical precedents when tourism thrived amid worse security in the 1990s. From an Indian strategic lens, such closures bolster terrorist narratives of instability, undermining counter-insurgency gains and economic revival in a terror-prone border state, while Abdullah urged immediate reviews to reopen sites and bolster infrastructure. He also flagged winter power outages as stemming from underreported consumer loads causing transformer failures, not smart meter delays, amid revenue losses for the power department.