By IANS
Srinagar : An influential Pakistan-based insurgent group has decided not to use guns to force the boycott of forthcoming assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir.
Syed Sallahuddin, supreme commander of the United Jihad Council (UJC), however declared that all “militant organisations” would remain opposed to the polls.
Sallahuddin said in Muzaffarabad, in the Pakistani Kashmir: “All the militant organisations associated with UJC will fully take part in the anti-poll campaign but guns will not be used to force the people to boycott the election.”
He, however, warned that if Indian security forces pressured people to vote, then his men would hit back.
Sallahuddin’s announcement is seen here as a significant change of strategy on the part of the separatist guerrillas.
In the past, the militants have not only attacked pro-India politicians with impunity during elections but also used grenades and rockets to target polling booths across Jammu and Kashmir.
Fear among voters reached a high pitch when the guerrillas kept coffins outside polling booths in many south Kashmir areas in the early 1990s.
Jammu and Kashmir last saw assembly elections in September-October 2002. The state legislature has a six-year life unlike all other elected houses that have five-year tenures.