Elections in Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) under military siege are nothing but a façade.
A report released by Kashmir Media Service, today, said India is using sham elections in the occupied territory to perpetuate its military occupation as polls in IIOJK are meant to give a democratic veneer to India’s military occupation.
It lamented that India was frequently holding election dramas in the occupied territory to mislead the international community. Elections in IIOJK are aimed at diverting people’s attention from the freedom movement, it added.
The report said that polls in occupied Jammu and Kashmir were intended to give an impression that the Kashmiris were fed up with the resistance movement but they would continue their struggle till taking it to its logical conclusion.
Kashmir civil society members have raised concern over the ongoing harassment and oppression by Indian forces during intensified restrictions, cordon and search operations, and raids pre and post sham Indian parliamentary elections in occupied Jammu and Kashmir.
According to Kashmir Media Service, civil society members, including Dr. Zubair Ahmed, Muhammad Furhan, Muhammad Iqbal Shaheen, and Syed Haider Hussain, issued a joint statement to the media, saying that the Modi regime is targeting Kashmiri people for not allowing the Bharatiya Janata Party to field its candidates in the occupied territory. They questioned whether genuine elections can be held amid heavy deployment of troops backed by drones and helicopters, which has turned the occupied territory into a war zone rather than an election battlefield.
The civil society members emphasized that Kashmiris remain united in their demand for freedom from India’s illegal occupation and restoration of their rights, including those enshrined in Articles 370 and 35A, which were revoked by the Indian government in August 2019.—KMS