By GNS on 04/04/2019.

Srinagar, April 4: A process that enables rulers to choke political space, crush democratic rights of people, arrest and suppress political dissent, ban peaceful politics and religious activities cannot be named as a real democratic process, said the acting chairman of Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) Abdul Hameed Butt on Thursday.

In a statement issued to GNS, Butt said elections in Jammu & Kashmir are detrimental to the interests of Kashmiris and hence deserve a total rejection and boycott.

Terming the elections in J&K as mockery of democracy, Butt said: “A process that is used to hoodwink international opinion on Jammu & Kashmir cannot be termed as a genuine democratic process and deserves our complete and comprehensive rejection and boycott.”

“Holding elections by putting curbs, annihilating every opposite voice, putting political leaders and activists in jails and incarceration centres, putting curbs on media and newspapers by stopping them advertisements, spreading an atmosphere of fear and animosity and creating a war like situation is undemocratic and dictatorial which should be condemned by all right thinking people,” he said.

JKLF acting chairman said the “pro-India” politicians and their parties are responsible for “all our miseries”.

“Pro-India politicians and their parties are used for promoting a politics of deception and every now and then we see a change in their theatrical role. When in opposition, they chant freedom slogans, voice for human rights and so on but as soon as they assume power, they become tools of oppression and aggression fulfilling their selfish goals, class and sectional interests,” he said.

Butt said democracy is a force that joins people but in Jammu & Kashmir, we see this process is used to divide people in the name of creed, class, religion, language, region and tribe.

JKLF leader appealed people to boycott the upcoming parliamentary elections.

Meanwhile, JKLF paid tributes to scholar Jamsheed Ismaiel Jameel of Bandipora who while fighting cancer breathed his last recently.

The party prayed for his heavenly abode and Sabr-e-Jameel to the bereaved family.

JKLF also expressed grief over the demise of the mother of senior journalist Riyaz Masroor and at the demise of grandfather of another senior journalist Arif Shafi Wani and expressed solidarity with both the bereaved families.