Pro-Pakistan Hizbul Mujahideen outfit has asked the separatist Hurriyat Conference leaders to launch a “door-to-door, street-to-street and house-to-house” poll-boycott campaign even as posters threatening the voters of “consequences” were found in some south Kashmir villages.
The five-phased elections are on in Jammu & Kashmir as notification for the third phase was issued on Friday. The authorities have already rounded up several separatist leaders and many others have been put under house arrest to prevent their anti-election activities.
Sources said that Hizbul posters were found in some villages of Pulwama and Shopian districts of south Kashmir. The computer-typed posters written on plain paper in Urdu have warned people against participation in election rallies and asked them to adhere to complete boycott of polls.
Police said the posters were found on electric poles and iron shutters of shops in Tahab, Chakora, Tukroo and Daramdor villages.
“The people who cast votes will have to face the consequences”, the posters read.
The posters were immediately removed by the Army deployed in the area.
later in the day, Syed Salahuddin, Chief of Hizbul Mujahideen and chairman of multi-outfit United Jehad Council asked the separatist leaders to launch a poll-boycott campaign to “educate people on the demerits of participation in the polls”. Salahuddin in a statement said that people who would vote in the coming elections would be “considered as traitors who are out to sell off blood of the martyrs”.