MUZAFFARABAD: Azad Jammu and Kashmir’s acting Prime Minister Chaudhry Latif Akbar on Saturday called upon India to agree to hold a United Nations (UN) sponsored plebiscite in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir instead of conducting ‘farcical’ state assembly elections in five phases.

“We are democratic people and have ourselves entered upon the public offices through the power of vote, but what happens across the divide is a stain on suffrage,” he said here, at the press club’s “Meet the Press” programme.

“We therefore reject the charade in the name of elections and will stage state-wide protests on November 25, when the first phase of polling happens,” he added.

The AJK acting premier also condemned the arrests of All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) leaders in held Kashmir for launching anti-poll drive and made it clear that the AJK government stood by their boycott call.

“In the presence of around 800,000 military and paramilitary troopers, who will accept the results of these elections.”

The acting premier pointed out that the UN Security Council resolutions called for settlement of the status of the disputed state of Kashmir according to the aspirations of its people, but India had been brazenly glossing over them for the past 67 years.

“Instead, India has been presenting the fraudulent elections in held Kashmir, conducted under the shadow of bullets and bayonets, as a substitute for the UN sponsored plebiscite in sheer disregard to the relevant UN resolutions,” he lamented.

Terming Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a belligerent leader of the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP), Mr Akbar maintained that he had been fanning Hindu chauvinism, which could plunge the region into a devastating war.

“Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee was a liberal leader of the BJP, but Mr Modi is blatantly pursuing his Hinduvta agenda, without showing an iota of remorse for the genocide of Muslims in Gujarat,” he said, fearing that the same odious agenda could be replicated by him in held Kashmir during the sham elections.

He recalled that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s participation in Mr Modi’s swearing in ceremony was a proof of the fact that Pakistan wanted to resolve all issues with India through peaceful means.

However, Pakistan’s approach was misread by India and the secretary level talks were called off on a flimsy ground, he said, referring to the APHC leaders’ meeting with Pakistan’s high commissioner in New Delhi.

He said India had also been violating the sanctity of ceasefire along the Line of Control (LoC) and Working Boundary under a well thought out policy of Modi government, aimed at wooing fanatic Hindus.

Referring to the recent killing of two Kashmiri youths and injury of as many at the hands of Indian troops in Chattergam Budgam area, Mr Akbar said it amply proved that there had been no let-up in the atrocities unleashed by the occupation forces in held Kashmir.

He called upon the international human rights organisations to take notice of such barbaric acts.

He paid tributes to the families of the victims for rejecting compensation from the Indian army.

Published in Dawn, November 9th, 2014