The Hindu : JKLF out of Hurriyat, calls for poll boycott

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Mar 30, 2004

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JKLF out of Hurriyat, calls for poll boycott

By Shujaat Bukhari

SRINAGAR, MARCH 29. The Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) today asked the people of Kashmir to boycott the Lok Sabha elections. It has also asked the Election Commission and the Jammu and Kashmir Government to allow it to continue its anti-election campaign.

Announcing that the front had withdrawn from the All Parties Hurriyat Conference, its chairman, Mohammad Yaseen Malik, said: "We have started a campaign during which we ask people to judge for themselves whether the elections are going to solve any problem. But, the Government has started creating problems in this process and I was arrested on Saturday while going to Bandipore and another separatist leader, Shabir Shah, was arrested when he was going to Kupwara." Mr. Malik said this was in contrast to what the Chief Election Commissioner had said in New Delhi, and termed the election boycott as a part of democratic exercise. The Chief Minister, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, had said many times that democracy was a battle of ideas. "It is unfortunate that the Government had imposed Section 144 in Baramulla district just to create hurdles in our movement," said the JKLF chairman.

"It is his (Election Commissioner's) moral responsibility to ensure that people are free to decide on elections."

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