JOIN USWith authorities curbing the movement of Hurriyat leaders ahead of Assembly polls in Jammu and Kashmir, the separatists are propagating the poll boycott campaign through video clips on social networking sites and applications, including Facebook and WhatsApp.
A four-minute video clip has gone viral on such sites with messages of chairmen of both hardline and moderate factions of Hurriyat Conference and Dukhtaran-e-Millat chief Asiya Andrabi. The video message sent through WhatsApp and shared on Facebook and Twitter asked the people to boycott the coming polls.
It also showed Hurriyat hawk Syed Ali Geelani addressing a gathering via phone urging youth not to undermine the mission of ‘martyrs’. Moderate Hurriyat chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq is seen posing for the camera with the appeal that polls must be boycotted ‘en masse’.
The video starts with a song eulogising people of Kashmir. It then shifts towards the lecture by Geelani, who in his message asks youth to boycott elections. It also shows the senior separatist reciting the poetry of Alama Iqbal in front of the camera. “My appeal to the youth in particular is that the sacrifices rendered by the people must be safeguarded and, hence, in no way should vote during elections.”