SRINAGAR – In occupied Kashmir, complete shutdown was observed in the areaswhere second phase of so-called local bodies’ elections was held today.
According to Kashmir Media Service, all shops and other businessestablishments were closed while traffic was off the road in poll-boundareas of Srinagar and other parts of the valley.
Call for the strike was given by Joint Resistance Leadership comprisingSyed Ali Gilani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Muhammad Yasin Malik.
Strict restrictions were imposed particularly in Srinagar, Badgam,Islamabad, Kulgam, Bandipora and Kupwara districts to preventdemonstrations against the polls.
Besides personnel attached to four hundred companies of paramilitaryCentral Reserve Police Force, fifty thousand additional troops weredeployed for election duty.
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Very low turnout was witnessed in polling held for 158 out of 263 wardsspread over a dozen districts in Jammu and the Valley.
People’s indifference to the election process can be gauged from the factthat sixty five wards had just one candidate each who returned unopposed,while forty wards had no candidate, at all. Only 1.4 per cent turnout wasreported from Srinagar.
In a statement in Srinagar, All Parties Hurriyat Conference said a militaryoperation is underway in the name of elections.