WASHINGTON, March 14: The head of the Srinagar-based Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front, Yasin Malik, has called for the creation of a Kashmiri election commission to oversee elections in the territory and also urged a ceasefire by militants.

Reporting this on Thursday, The Christian Science Monitor quoted Mr Malik as saying in an interview in New Delhi: “The government of India always raises the question of, if you claim to represent the people, then why don’t you stand for election? So we accepted the challenge.”

Mr Malik’s JKLF is part of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference and his remarks can be interpreted as an indication that the organziation may be interested in taking part in state elections under certain conditions.

A senior US administration official had also, in remarks here last week to a group of South Asian journalists, underlined the need for free and fair elctions in Jammu and Kashmir as a step towards resolving the Kashmir issue.