Hizb warns locals over participation in civic polls

SRINAGAR: Jammu and Kashmir’s biggest militant group has warned the people of acid attacks if they participate in the local bodies’ polls scheduled to be held from September to December.

The warning from Hizbul Mujahideen (HM) on Tuesday came as officials said the preparations for holding the elections were in their final stages and the dates for them could be announced soon. As many as 16 sarpanches (panchayat heads) and panchs (rural local bodies’ members) have been killed over the last four years amid an escalation in militant violence.

A record 75% voter turnout was recorded when panchayat polls were last held in 2011.

“Those people who are thinking about participating in the polls should also get shrouds along with election forms,’’ HM’s operational commander, Riyaz Naikoo, warned in a purported audio message. Naikoo accused the armed forces of harassing “innocent people and ransacking their properties” as they prepare the ground for holding the elections. He said they have got hydrochloric and sulphuric acid and those participating in the elections should be prepared.

Naikoo said the army would guard the house of alleged informer, Shameema Bano, in south Kashmir’s Pulwama district to protect her from them after tipping off the forces about HM commander Sameer Tiger’s whereabouts. “How long could the forces have managed to protect her,’’ he said, referring to Bano’s murder on August 17. Tiger was killed in April.

Naikoo claimed they can kill anybody at any place. “We do not have personal animosity with anybody, but the people who will work against our struggle or sacrifices will be punished.’’

He criticised the media for failing “to highlight the atrocities of the forces” and blamed them for “working for the intelligence agencies”. “The news portraying militants negatively gets prominence while houses of militants and other people, which get ransacked, find very little space on the inner [newspaper] pages.’’

Militants have issued poll boycott calls since 1996 when first elections were held in the state following the beginning of the armed insurgency in the 1980s.

Authorities have retained over 16,000 central forces deployed in Kashmir for the Amarnath pilgrimage for security during the local bodies’ polls. The elections were due in January but they were deferred after the Peoples Democratic Party-Bharatiya Janata Party coalition government told the Centre the situation was not conducive for them.

The electoral process has been accelerated since the imposition of Governor’s Rule in June after the BJP withdrew support to the coalition government.

Satya Pal Malik’s appointment as the first politician governor in five decades last week is seen as part of the Centre’s keenness to ensure smooth conduct of the polls. The state is under his direct administrative control in the absence of an elected government. Malik’s arrival in Srinagar coincided with the killing of four people, including three policemen, in separate militant attacks on August 23.

Four policemen were shot dead in south Kashmir’s Shopian while two HM militants were killed in Anantnag Wednesday.