Anti-polls strike, demos in occupied Kashmir

In occupied Kashmir, the fifth and the last phase of Indian parliamentary elections, today, was marked with complete protest strike and anti-polls demonstrations. A large number of people took to the streets with anti-election slogans at Bomai in Sopore and in Baramulla while Indian police personnel subjected the protestors in Wetrigam and Bandipore to brute force arresting several of them.
Thousands of policemen and paramilitary troopers wearing bulletproof jackets and carrying assault rifles marched the deserted streets of Srinagar and other towns of the valley. The troops had erected the barricades and laid concertina wires to foil anti-election protests.
A very low turnout was recorded in Sopore, Bomai, Baramulla, Pattan, Palhalan, Magaam, Wetrigam and Bandipore. Indian troops forcibly herded people towards the polling booths at Lalpora and Tikkipora in Lolab, Saihepora in Handwara and Brat in Sopore. The APHC Chairman, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, in a statement in Srinagar, said that farcical polls were meaningless and irrelevant in the presence of seven hundred thousand occupation troops and after placing Hurriyet leaders in detention and house arrest. Besides the APHC Chairman, several other pro-freedom leaders continue to remain under stringent house arrest.
(some inputs of KMS)