J&K Panchayat Polls Begin Amid Complete Shutdown in Valley

The panchayat polls in Jammu & Kashmir began on Saturday under the shadow of a complete shutdown across the Kashmir Valley, following a call given by the Joint Resistance Leadership, a separatist conglomerate headed by Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, and Muhammad Yasin Malik. 

After the recently held civic polls, the panchayat polls are also being boycotted by the two key parties, the National Conference (NC) and People’s Democratic Party (PDP), on the issue of Article 35-A of the Constitution and citing  security situation in the state that they said was ‘non-conducive’ to conducting free and fair polls.

On Saturday, shops and other business establishments remained closed and public transport was off roads, as polling began for phase-I of panchayat polls-2018 across 3,296 polling station, including 1,303 in Kashmir and 1,993 in Jammu.

According to the Chief Electoral Officer of J&K, Shaleen Kabra, 5,585 candidates are contesting the elections, which includes 420 Sarpanch and 1845 Panch in Phase-I. While informing reporters about the candidates who won unopposed, he said 58 Sarpanchs and 1,676 have already been elected in Phase -1.

During I-Phase 687 polling station have been categorised as hypersensitive including 491 in Kashmir and 196 in Jammu. In I-Phase, 445059 electors were voting for Sarpanch seats and 272792 were polling for Panch constituencies.

To conduct smooth panchayat elections,  government officers have been appointed and expenditure observers are keeping an eye on the expenditure by the candidates, the reporters were informed. In hypersensitive polling stations, micro observers have been placed. Besides, the zonal and sector magistrates too have been deployed.

Security arrangements have been intensified, including the deployment of Central Armed Police Forces.

Panchayat elections will be held in nine phases on November 17, 20, 24, 27, 29 and December 01, 04, 08 and 11, 2108.  

The polls are being held at a time when J&K is under Governor’s rule after the fall of the Mehbooba Mufti-led government following withdrawal of support by the Bharatiya Janata Party.

In the earlier panchayat elections held in 2011, the turnout was 82% across J&K.  

In 2016, the term of the last panchayat election had expired, but the  PDP-BJP government failed to conduct the polls despite repeated orders from the Central government since 2017.   

Civilians Abducted

Meanwhile, three civilians were abducted by unknown gunmen in Saidpora Payeen an area of South Kashmir’s Shopian district.

As per reports, the civilians were identified as Shahid Ahmad Ganie, son of Mohammad Amin, Farooq Ahmad Thokar, son of Abdul Aziz Thokar, and Huzaif from Saidpora Payeen village. Meanwhile, police said it hadstarted a search to nab the culprits.

Later, two among the three civilians -- Shahid and Farooq -- were released and Huzaif’s dead body was recovered from Landoora village of the district near Tongri Nallah.  

Meanwhile, two more civilians were reportedly abducted. The two have been identified by police officials as Hakib Javed Ganie of Meemander and Ishfaq  Ahmad of Pudsoo village of Shopian district.

‘Disturbing’ Video

A day before the panchayat polls began amid militant threats, a  video was reportedly released by militants. The video, which depicted the brutal killing of a teenaged school boy allegedly by militant outfit Hizbul Mujahideen, has created shock waves across the Valley.

Reports said the school boy’s body was later found at Niklora village in neighbouring Pulwama district. 

Former Chief Minister and NC president,  Omar Abdullah, tweeted “deeply disturbing” in reaction to the video of the  11th standard student in Shopian district of South Kashmir.

“There can be no justification for this act & should force those who sympathise with these outfits to question how these murders make Kashmir a better, freer place,” Omar tweeted.