Geelani calls for complete boycott of Indian by-elections in Kashmir

Polling station set ablaze in Indian-occupied Kashmir days before by-elections

A polling station in Indian-occupied Kashmir was set ablaze on Friday two days before the scheduled parliamentary by-poll in the disputed region.

Indian police said the building designated as the polling station was torched in Yarigund village of Budgam district by ‘miscreants’, Hindustan Times reported.

The incident comes in the wake of freedom fighter’s call for boycotting the elections in the occupied valley.



Chairman of All Parties Hurriyet Conference Syed Ali Geelani urged people to completely boycott the ‘so-called parliamentary by-elections’ in the valley.

Geelani reiterated, in a statement issued in Srinagar, that the joint resistance leadership’s call for shutdown and anti-elections rallies in the central Indian-held Kashmir’s areas on Sunday, and in southern Kashmir on Wednesday.

He said that on the one side, the puppet authorities were brutally killing people and hundreds of Hurriyet leaders and activists had been sent to detention centres; on the other side, the pro-India politicians were busy staging election drama in the occupied territory.



“We are passing through a crucial phase. It is a trial and it is pre-requisite to follow the mission with the same spirit as was witnessed during the people’s uprising in 2016,” Geelani said.

“Whosoever participates in the sham elections provides an opportunity to Indian rulers to mislead the international community. They (Indian rulers) are exploiting the people of Jammu and Kashmir,” he added.