Umar Farooq Has Urged People To Boycott Polls In occupied Kashmir

Thursday, October 23, 2008 at 3:05 pm

Srinagar, (KMS): In occupied Kashmir, the Chairman of All Parties Hurriyet Conference, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq has urged people to boycott forthcoming so-called assembly elections.

Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, in a media interview in Srinagar said that India is trying to project elections as an alternative solution to Kashmir dispute but the people of Kashmir would not allow it to happen. He called upon the masses to prove it to the world by boycotting the polls that they were not interested in any such process.

“Elections are being held only to mislead the world community and put Kashmir issue in a cold storage”, Mirwaiz said, adding even the international law also states that election cannot be held in a disputed region. “Kashmir has been internationally acknowledged as a dispute and holding elections here is not legal,” he added.

Referring to recent pro-liberation protest demonstrations, the APHC Chairman said, “Lakhs of people taking to roads and demanding right to self-determination should have served as an eye-opener for India, but it has once again ignored the aspirations of the Kashmiris and imposed elections on them.” He said that Hurriyet activists had been informed about the programme to counter the polls.

Mirwaiz maintained, “We have told the district presidents to launch a massive election boycott campaign to make people aware about its ill effect. He said that campaign would be run from district offices in the valley, adding, “We are planning to launch a vigorous programme to institutionalise the district offices of the APHC.”

Meanwhile, an APHC spokesman in a statement in Srinagar said that a meeting of Executive Council, Working Committee and General Council members held here unanimously decided to oppose holding of elections. The meeting noted that sacrifices rendered by people of Kashmir for a right to self-determination and not for holding such sham elections.