“(Article) 370, for many Kashmiris like me, is a thing of the past. Jhelum and Ganga have merged in the great Indian Ocean for good. There is no going back. There is only marching forward,” said Faesal on Twitter.

The remarks by the 2010-batch IAS officer come just days ahead of a scheduled hearing of a batch of pleas challenging the abrogation of Article 370 before a five-judge Constitution bench of the Supreme Court.

Pertinently, Faesal had also filed a petition in the apex court to challenge the abrogation of Article 370, which granted a special status to Jammu and Kashmir in the Indian Constitution.

However, news agency ANI on Tuesday said that Faesal has withdrawn his petition. “Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer Shah Faesal, who had filed a petition in the Supreme Court challenging the Presidential Order to scrap Article 370, speaks to ANI, says, he has withdrawn the petition a long time back,” said ANI on Twitter.

A five-judge Constitution bench led by Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud will, on 11 July, take up a batch of over two dozen petitions that seek to challenge the legal validity of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019.