With the arrest of JKLF chief Yasin Malik during an overnight raid at his residence, the Government has begun a crackdown on the separatist leadership ahead of the Assembly elections with an aim to curtail their poll boycott campaign.

Malik had held a rally at Hajin village in Sonawari constituency, north Kashmir, where he had asked people to boycott the Assembly elections. On Thursday morning, as the news of Malik’s arrest spread, people came out to protest in Maisuma area of Srinagar city. The rally in Sonawari, which goes to polls in the first phase of the elections on November 17, was the first anti-poll activity by the separatists. Malik had talked about a peaceful boycott, insisting that people should strictly wage a non-violent campaign. “We don’t need to protest, hold processions or pelt-stones. We just have to sit at home and avoid going to election rallies or polling booths,” he had said. “These elections will not resolve the Kashmir dispute. They are meant to hoodwink the international community,” he had added.

Another separatist leader, Ghulam Nabi Sumji, who heads the Hurriyat hardliners in the absence of Syed Ali Shah Geelani, was arrested too.

Reacting to Malik’s arrest, Chairman of the Hurriyat moderates Mirwaiz Umar Farooq said that this shows the frustration of the Government. “It is our right to ask people not to vote,” he asserted.

The Government had been mulling over its response to the separatist’s poll boycott campaign, especially as this time, the situation is different from its previous experiences with anti-poll campaigns in Kashmir. Encouraged by the massive turnout at their rallies, the separatist leadership has been insisting that the poll boycott will be peaceful. This new phenomenon had initially put the Government in a dilemma and the J-K Police had even sought a legal opinion to determine the framework to curb the poll boycott, as voting is not compulsory.

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