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APHC boycott:

Pro-Indians also

abstaining from

electioneering

ISLAMABAD: In sharp contrast to Indian government, which is abuzz with electoral activity, there are no signs of electioneering in Indian Held Kashmir (IKH), which is to return six MPs to the Lok Sabha.

In view of the APHC's call to boycott election and the expected low voter turnout, no political party or group, including the rabidly pro-India National Conference of Farooq Abdulllah, is participating in the election which are being held in the State after a lapse of seven years. Even leaders of the ruling Congress Party have on several occasions threatened to boycott election as a mark of protest against pro-government extremists who are on the rampage in the Occupied State, threatening people with dire consequences in case they boycotted polls. The General Secretary of the Congress Party in IHK Taj Mohyuddin, told BBC about the pro-government extremists firing a rocket to disrupt his election meeting in Anantnag. Similarly, President of the Congress Party in held Kashmir, Ghulam Rasool Kar, has threatened to withdraw from the contest as he apprehended that pro-government militants would use arms during the election. According to BBC Kar termed Farooq Abdullah's decision not to participate in the elections as 'absolutely correct'.

Credibility of elections has also been questioned by the so-called independent candidates who are also conspicuous by their absence from the electoral arena. According to BBC, two independent candidates from Srinagar and Anantnag, Fayyaz Rahat and Ghulam Nabi Shah, told journalists that they apprehended that the elections would be rigged.

Ghulam nabi Shah told BBC correspondent that he was apprehending open use of guns by the pro-India extremists during the election campaign. He said that the extremists had also gone to the office of the returning officer who later asked them to leave his office.

Shah feared that the voters would be compelled to cast their votes for particular candidates at gun-point. The other candidate Fayyaz Rahat, while expressing concern over rigging by the Congress, said that the Congress candidates had disappeared after submitting their nomination papers. -APP