Deputy Chief Minister Nirmal Singh today said that threats to election in Jammu and Kashmir is not new but government has devised a strategy to ensure “incident free” panchayat elections.
“Threats were always there. It was in past too but people had come in numbers for voting,” Nirmal Singh told media on sidelined of a function held at Jammu University in connection with 2nd death anniversary of former Chief Minister Mufti Muhammad Sayeed.
“This is desperation of militants and Pakistan, which is forcing these groups to resort to such tactics and threaten people but I am confident the election shall be held and government had done all the preparations to ensure that elections will be held without any incident of violence,” the deputy chief minister said while reacting on warning issued by Hizbul Mujahideen’s operational commander Riyaz Naikoo.
Riyaz Naikoo in a video message threatened to “pour acid into the eyes of those who would participate in the upcoming panchayat elections in the state.”
Commenting on Alighar Muslim University scholar Mannan Wani’s joining Hizbul Mujahideen, Nirmal Singh said, “Such people are highly motivated and sometimes separatists persuaded them to join militancy ranks. But in contrary, the actual ground situation is completely different and large number of people, those who have picked guns, are coming back.”
“The youth who are gone to the way Pakistan wanted is coming back, their parents and friends are appealing them and I hopeful that in future you will see improvement and no local will joining militantly ranks and those who gone over would coming back,” he claimed.