‘Kashmiris to boycott polls’

Published April 21, 2002

MIRPUR, April 20: AJK President Major-General (retd) Sardar Muhammad Anwar Khan has said that the people of occupied Jammu Kashmir will boycott the New Delhi-sponsored mock elections to the state “legislature”.

He was addressing elders of the area including workers of the All Jammu Kashmir Muslim Conference at the residence of former Municipal Councillor Ch. Riasat Ali here late on Friday.

Front-ranking Muslim Conference leader and former Chairman MDA Ch. Muhammad Sadeeque advocate, Ch. Riasat Ali and others spoke at the occasion.

The president said that the so-called elections in occupied Jammu Kashmir could never be a substitute for plebiscite in the held state. He said that India, by once again raising the bogey of holding the so-called elections in the disputed Himalayan state, wanted to divert world attention from the Kashmiris’ indigenous struggle for liberation of their motherland.

The president called upon the world community to take immediate notice of the plight of the Kashmiri people, particularly the increasing human rights abuses in the occupied Jammu Kashmir state at the hands of the Indian occupation forces. He urged the United Nations to implement its resolutions.

The president expressed satisfaction over the present government’s Kashmir policy describing it as positive, just, principled, and realistic.—APP