JRL asks people to observe shutdown on poll day
Srinagar: Joint Resistance Leadership (JRL) on Wednesday called for a complete shutdown on October 08 to protest the commencement of Urban Local Bodies and Panchayat elections in Jammu and Kashmir.
JRL comprising Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Muhammad Yasin Malik in a statement issued here asked the people to observe a complete shutdown across Jammu and Kashmir on 8th October to protest the commencement of ULB polls and what they termed as ‘drama being foisted upon them’.
JRL also asked people to observe subsequent protest shutdown in their own respective areas as per the poll schedule on 10th, 13th and 16th October 2018 respectively and show their complete disassociation and resentment against it.
“As additional forces are being brought in to J&K for the conduct of these elections, it is clear that this farce is another attempt at coercion and rulers want to shove it down people throats by force, with the backing of lakhs and lakhs of military forces stationed here and through sections of police force,” the JRL said.
“This electoral drama is another form of subjugation. It conveys that even if entire people of Kashmir are against it and even if pro India regional parties boycott it, GOI is the command and control in Kashmir and has the power and force to conduct them without caring about its credibility or effectiveness,” the leaders said.
“What bigger mockery and irony can there be than that in this ‘so called democratic exercise’ even the identity of candidates who are supposed to represent public will not be known to the public whom they will represent,” they added.
“As part of Doval doctrine followed by GOI, forcing this exercise on people is one more way of making them (people of Kashmir) pay the price and to break their resolve for standing up against the state for their fundamental right,” they said.
“As per the Doval doctrine people cannot sustain resistance beyond a point, so keep the pressure on them by hurling one assault after another , till they break down. So right after the 35 A assault this bogey was raised,” the JRL said.
JRL said that “people of Kashmir are far too mature by circumstance of subjugation not to understand all this. GOI can fool people of India, but people of Kashmir and the world know enough of this by now. Kashmiri’s know that any kind of participation in these machinations by GOI is betrayal with their supreme struggle.”
They said that aourstruggle for self determination is nurtured by the blood and valour of its people in the face of a mighty adversary and acute repression.
“A struggle that sooner or later will succeed. The slogan of people is loud and clear ‘No to all election only Right of self determination’,” JRL said.
Meanwhile, JRL leaders including Geelani and Mirwaiz strongly condemned the arrest of JKLF chairman Mohammad Yaseen Malik by the authorities and the arrest of dozens of Hurriyat activists and youth and raids on their homes.
KV Network
