Hizb threatens acid attacks on all fighting J&K rural poll

Srinagar: Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, an  indigenous militant outfit, has threatened to carry out acid attacks against the people who participate in the upcoming elections for panchayats in Jammu and Kashmir.

The outfit’s ‘Operational Commander’ Riyaz Naikoo has in a purported audio said that a number of Kashmiri youth were blinded in the use of pellet guns during the post-Burhan Wani unrest in the Valley and that now those who fight the panchayat elections would face the same fate in the hands of the militants.

“You saw in 2016 how many youth lost their eyesight...That is why we have planned whosoever fights elections will be dragged out of his home and concentrated acid – sulphuric or hydrochloric – will be poured into his eyes so that he loses his eyesight and becomes a burden for his families for life,” Naikoo can be heard telling another Hizb militant Sameer Tiger in the audio attributed to him. The audio has gone viral on social media after it was leaked at the weekend.

Naikoo in the audio also says that the militants have tried to stop people from participating in elections but even killing could not stop people from it. “For the past 28 years, we have been threatening those (participating in elections), but nothing has happened. You saw in the last elections how many were killed – some by agencies and some by us, but what was the result? They were benefitted.” He is apparently referring to the government’s providing financial assistance and even jobs to the kin of the slain men.

The panchayat elections in Jammu and Kashmir were to be held last year but were deferred in view of widespread unrest in the aftermath of Wani’s. Now the government has planned to hold these from mid-February.

Chief minister, Mehbooba Mufti had in November while announcing the long overdue Panchayat elections in the State from February 15 hoped that the people “will choose ballots over bullets during these elections.”

The separatists were quick to issue a call for boycott of these elections. An alliance of key separatist leaders appealed the people to boycott the “election drama announced by so-called rulers who want to enact it to negate the Kashmiris demand for right to self-determination.” Other organisations reiterated their stance that elections whether Parliament, the Assembly or local bodies held under the Indian Constitution cannot be substitute to the plebiscite to determine Jammu and Kashmir’s political future.