Protests held against illegal LG polls in occupied Kashmir

MUZAFFARABAD: While the first phase of the sham local government elections were held in occupied Kashmir on Wednesday, protests were held in Muzaffarabad and other areas of Azad Kashmir against the illegal activity by India.

The participants urged the international community to force India to hold a plebiscite in occupied Kashmir in accordance with UNSC resolutions.

They said that the local government elections held under the supervision of over thousands of gun-toting Indian occupation forces were a farce activity by India to hoodwink the world.

Kashmir is a disputed territory under the UN resolutions and the issue has to be resolved in accordance with the wishes of the Kashmiri people as guaranteed under the UNSC resolutions and such sham polls by India were not a substitute for it.

According to media reports, Indian forces made the Kashmiri people hostage on the polling day. The occupation forces carried out search operation and frisked passengers on pickets set up a crossed the towns where the elections were held. It was a curfew like situation in the areas where the polls were held amid lack of public interest.

Since India abolished the special status of Kashmir in August 2019, the disputed territory administration had not held any local government elections. The last local government elections in occupied Kashmir were held over a decade ago.

There are in total 90 seats of the local government in occupied Kashmir and polling in 24 of them will be held on Wednesday. As many as 219 candidates are in the field for the 24 seats, according to the election commission.

These constituencies include eight seats in the areas of Doda, Khistwara, Ramba and four seats of Azad Kashmir, and 16 seats of Pulwawa and Anatnag etc.

Thousands of Indian occupation forces have been deployed for the security duty on the occasion of the elections.