ISLAMABAD, Jan 9: Senior Kashmiri leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq has said that the Indian announcement about holding of local bodies elections in the Indian Held Kashmir (IHK) is just an effort to deceive the international community.

Talking to a Pakistani private TV channel, he said elections, either for local bodies or assemblies, "cannot bring change" in the existing critical situation of the Valley.

The Indian government has been holding sham elections in Kashmir for the last 56 years but the dispute could not be resolved through this way, he said. Like other elections, these too will not benefit the Indian government as the Kashmiris have nothing to do with the process, he added. -APP