Kashmiri anti-election campaigners vow to resist Indian govt

Kashmir's chief priest and senior separatist leader Mirwaiz Moulvi Umar Farooq (2nd L) addresses a press conference in Srinagar yesterday. Mirwaiz spoke out against what he alleged were undemocratic and tyrannical measures by Indian authorities against Kashmiri separatists who have called for a boycott of elections in the restive state. Photo: AFP

A senior Kashmiri separatist said on Monday he would press ahead with an anti-election campaign in the disputed region despite a crackdown by Indian authorities.
Police have recently arrested several leading separatists for opposing state elections due to be held in seven phases beginning November 17.
Mirwaiz Umer Farooq said that he had been briefly held under house arrest as he planned to lead an anti-India protest march.
"We will not be cowed by the government crackdown. We will stage the anti-poll campaign," Farooq told reporters in local capital Srinagar.
Separatists and Muslim rebels oppose the elections, saying the polls strengthen New Delhi's hold over the region.
"We might be arrested like others. We might not get a chance to talk to people again," Farooq said, urging government officials to boycott election duties.
Shortly after he spoke, about a dozen more separatists were arrested, witnesses and police said.
Kashmir has recently witnessed the biggest pro-independence demonstrations since an insurgency broke out in 1989. The protests have met with a tough response from Indian security forces.
The unrest was triggered by a row over a government donation of Kashmiri land to a Hindu pilgrimage trust and spiralled into anti-India demonstrations that left nearly 50 Muslim protesters dead.
Kashmir is divided between India and Pakistan and claimed by both.