By IANS,
Srinagar : The separatist Hurriyat Conference Monday asked mainstream politicians in Jammu and Kashmir to pull out of the election process or “face social boycott in the future”.
Addressing a media conference here, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, chairman of his faction of the Hurriyat, said: “This is the last call for the so-called mainstream politicians to join the separatist movement and pull out of the elections.”
“If they still choose to contest elections, the people shall start a social boycott campaign against them.”
He blamed the mainstream political parties for the “present mess in the state”.
“They have been saying that the elections are not for resolution of the Kashmir dispute, but for good governance and addressing the problems of unemployment, lack of development etc.
“They have been ruling Kashmir for 60 years and they are responsible for the problems which they now claim to address after winning the elections.”
“Elections are ultimately projected as a sort of referendum by India and that is why we have called for a complete boycott of such a process,” he said.
The Mirwaiz also asked the migrant Kashmiri Hindus, Pandits as they are called, not to participate in the elections through exercise of postal ballots.
“Such a step by the members of the community would further deepen the wedge between the Pandits and the Muslims living here,” he said.
The Hurriyat chairman, after heading a meeting of the separatists’ joint Co-ordination Committee, alleged that the authorities had installed electronic jamming equipment outside his uptown Nigeen residence in the city.
“Even mobile phones cannot be used because of the jamming equipment installed outside our homes by the authorities,” the Mirwaiz said.
He asked the people to observe a complete shutdown and boycott polls on all the seven days the voting is scheduled here.
“If the authorities decide to arrest us, then the youth of the Kashmir valley would take over the resistance programme,” he said.
Jammu and Kashmir will elect its new 87-member assembly in seven-phased polling that starts Nov 17. The final round will be held Dec 24 and counting of the polls will take place Dec 24.