Protests slow down bypoll campaign in Kashmir

The killing of three civilians this week at Chadoora, Budgam, and the consequent wave of protests and violence has brought down the intensity of the election campaign in poll bound Srinagar and Anantnag Lok Sabha constituencies, with both National Conference and People’s Democratic Party preferring indoor meetings and cancelling many scheduled public canvassing.

PDP candidate from Anantnag, Tassaduq Mufti, son of former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed and CM Mehbooba Mufti’s brother, who is locked in a battle with JKPCC chief Ghulam Ahmad Mir, has asked his supporters not to risk their lives to vote for him. Mir is the joint candidate of Congress and National Conference.

Srinagar and Anantnag will go to the polls on 9 April and 12 April respectively. In Srinagar, NC patron Farooq Abdullah is facing a lesser known PDP candidate Nazir Ahmad Khan and has an advantage as Tariq Hameed Karra, who defeated him as a PDP candidate in 2014, is campaigning for him after having switched to the Congress.

Informed sources told this newspaper that three-time MLA from Chadoora, Javeed Mustafa Mir has asked CM Mehbooba to intervene in the civilian killing so that “murder charges” are framed at the earliest against the perpetrators. He has demanded that an FIR should be registered against the Army and the security forces for killing three teenagers at Chadoora. Sources said that Mustafa has told CM that if the charges were not framed, he would resign from the Assembly. The National Conference is using the unrest to their advantage. They are asking people to vote for them in order to defeat the “designs of the RSS in the Kashmir valley”.