Complete shutdown against Indian polls cripples life in Occupied Kashmir

SRINAGAR (KMS) – In Occupied Kashmir, the normal life remains crippled, today, due to a complete shutdown against the holding of so-called Indian elections in the territory and brutal measures against the Kashmiri people and their leadership. The call for the shutdown has been given by the Joint Resistance Leadership comprising Syed Ali Gilani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Muhammad Yasin Malik. It is also aimed at registering protest against the victimization and harassment of Hurriyat leaders and their kin by India’s infamous National Investigation Agency (NIA), the closure of Kashmir’s main highway for civilians for two days in a week and attack by Indian police and troops on inmates at Srinagar Central Jail. All shops, business establishments and educational institutions are closed while attendance in government and private offices is very thin. Transport is also off the road in the occupied territory. The NIA is harassing Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, Muhammad Yasin Malik and Syed Ali Gilani’s two sons in the name of questioning in connection with the false cases registered against them. The JRL, in a statement, issued in Srinagar appealed to the people of the occupied territory to stay away from the polling. Polling for the first phase of sham polls in the occupied territory is currently underway in Baramulla Lok Sabha constituency. The JRL has also called for shutdown in areas which are going to polls in the valley in subsequent phases of the farcical elections.

‘Sham polls in IOK a futile exercise’

In Occupied Kashmir, the High Court Bar Association (HCBA) has termed the holding of so-called Indian Parliamentary elections in the territory as a futile exercise as such polls in the past have not helped in the resolution of the Kashmir dispute. The HCBA in an Executive Committee meeting held in Srinagar said in terms of the UN resolutions of 1952 and 1957, elections held in the territory are no substitute to the right to self-determination, guaranteed to the people of Kashmir by the UN resolutions of August 13, 1948 and January 05, 1949 and also of those passed thereafter and will not in any manner constitute the final disposition of the territory. The participants of the meeting said that it would be in the interest of the people of India to hold plebiscite in a fair and impartial manner to give the Kashmiri people a chance to choose their future in a democratic manner. They said the claims of repealing the Articles 35-A and 370 of the Indian Constitution by the BJP will not put the Kashmir dispute on the backburner, as even after the repealing of the provisions, the UN resolutions still hold the field as also reflected in the Proviso appended to Article 253 of the Indian Constitution and India is, therefore, bound to implement these resolutions and fulfill the promises and pledges made by its leaders to the people of Kashmir at international as well as domestic level.