ANANTNAG: Jammu and Kashmir National Conference chief Farooq Abdullah on Saturday met tourists in Pahalgam and asserted Kashmir was and will always be a part of India.

Speaking to reporters, after the Pahalgam terror attack, the biggest message is that the tourists are "not scared."

"The people who wanted to spread fear have lost. They (terrorists) have lost. It has been proven today that we are not going to get scared. Kashmir was and will always be a part of India. People want terrorism to finish. It has been 35 years since we have seen terrorism; we want progress. We want to move forward. We will become a superpower one day," Abdullah said.

Meanwhile, Farooq Abdullah refused to give importance to the statements made by former Pakistan Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto, saying that the country can't move forward if attention was paid to Bhutto's remarks.

"If we go by Bilawal Bhutto's statements, we cannot move forward. I have been saying for a long time that the Indus Water Treaty should be reviewed again. Our rivers and we are the ones who are deprived," Abdullah told reporters here.

Abdullah's remarks came after former Pakistani Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto acknowledged his country's tango with terror operatives, saying that Pakistan has a past.

The JKNC chief and NC MLA Altaf Kaloo also met Hyder Shah, the father of Syed Adil Hussain Shah, a local who died in the Pahalgam terror attack while trying to save the tourists.

"Farooq Abdullah shared our grief and gave us courage in our sorrow, which is helping us move forward," Hyder Shah said.