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Section of IHK separatists not to boycott Indian polls

* Moderate faction of APHC leaves decision to people
* Hardliners say India using polls to ‘justify military occupation’ of IHK, voting tantamount to ‘betrayal of Kashmiris’ sacrifices

By Iftikhar Gilani

NEW DELHI: The decision to boycott Indian general elections is tearing away a moderate faction of the main separatist alliance in Indian-held Kashmir.

Most of the factions in the executive and the general council of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) have stayed away from the meetings called over the past few days to formulate a strategy on upcoming elections.

After Sajjad Ghani Lone, chairman of the People’s Conference, decided to contest from the Baramullah-Kupwara seat, other pro-freedom leaders are also thinking on similar lines. The moderate faction that decided not to boycott the polls, leaving the voting decision to the people, contradicted the separatist alliance United Jihad Council (UJC) and its chief Syed Salahuddin.

On Friday, a group of protesters in Srinagar burned effigies of APHC Acting Chairman Maulana Abbas Ansari and raised slogans in favour of Salahuddin and the hard-line faction’s Chairman Syed Ali Geelani.

“We do not recognise the UJC. They are carrying swords. We do not accept diktats,” Ansari said. The APHC’s moderate faction has for the first time in 13 years decided not to give a call to people to stay away from polls.

Geelani on the other hand had reinforced total boycott of elections. Several groups in the moderate faction led by Shabir Ahmed Shah, Naeem Khan and Fazlhaq Qureshi have also distanced themselves from the faction and are seeking a boycott call.

Hardliners: The hard-line separatists said New Delhi was using elections to “justify its military occupation” of IHK, and voting was tantamount to a “betrayal of the sacrifices made by Kashmiris”.

APHC Chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, rejecting the Indian elections, said the masses described it a ‘meaningless exercise’, APP reported.

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