Ending suspense, Joint Resistance Leadership (JRL) of separatists has called for the boycott of forthcoming panchayat and municipal polls in Jammu and Kashmir.
“So to think that any good can come out for people or they will in any manner get empowered from any elections is unnatural. Leadership wants to convey to government of India a loud and clear message from the people of Kashmir that they will boycott any kind of participation in elections. Instead their only demand is right to self-determination,” said a JRL in a statement.
JRL is a conglomerate of Hurriyat hawk Syed Ali Shah Geelani, moderate Hurriyat Conference Chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chairman Mohammad Yasin Malik, who spearheaded the 2016 unrest in Kashmir.
“Any participation in polls is propagated as people’s verdict in favour of India and hence they are used as a means to dilute J&K disputed status and undo the holding of a referendum as promised by India at the UN. These so-called elections only bring prosperity to an opportunist class of people whom India has patronised in Kashmir,” said the separatist trio.
JRL’s boycott call comes a day after Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had a detailed discussions with J&K governor Satya Pal Malik on the urban local bodies and panchayat elections.
Elections for municipal bodies will be conducted in four phases with polling dates between October 1 and October 5, 2018. Similarly, panchayat elections will be conducted in eight phases with polling dates between November 8 and December 4, 2018.
Four-Phase Polls
JRL’s boycott call comes a day after Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had a detailed discussions with J&K governor Satya Pal Malik on the urban local bodies and panchayat elections. Elections for municipal bodies will be conducted in four phases from October 1 and October 5, 2018.
