Srinagar (November 17, 2018): In occupied Kashmir, complete shutdown, is observed across the territory, today, to register protest against the holding of so-called panchayat elections.
Call for the shutdown has been given by the Joint Resistance Leadership comprising Syed Ali Gilani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Muhammad Yasin Malik.
The nine-phased panchayat elections will commence in the occupied territory, today.
The resistance leaders in a statement in Srinagar urged people to reject and boycott the panchayat elections in the same way they rejected the local bodies’ elections by staying indoors. The leaders have also called for the strike in the poll-bound areas on their scheduled dates.
Meanwhile, people staged forceful demonstrations in Hyderpora, Budshah Chowk, Maisuma, Nowhatta, Soura, Janab Sahib and other areas of Srinagar against the staging of election drama by India in the territory. 
The demonstrations were attended by a large number of people including Hurriyat leaders, Muhammad Yousuf Naqash, Bilal Siddiqi, Noor Muhammad Kalwal, Showkat Ahmed Bakhshi, Abdul Ahad Parra, Sheikh Abdur Rasheed, Syed Bashir Andrabi, Javaid Ahmed Mir, Molvi Bashir Ahmed, Khawaja Firdous Wani, Muhammad Yasin Attai, Imtiaz Ahmed Shah, Syed Muhammad Shafi, Muhammad Maqbool Magami, Arshid Aziz, Shakeel Ahmad Bhat, Mohammad Shafi Mir, Bashir Ahmad Budgami, Mohammad Imran Bhat, Mubashir Iqbal, Showkat Ahmad Khan, Mudasir Ahmad Bhat, Sajad Ahmad Lone and activists of Muslim League.
The protesters also denounced the filing of concocted charge-sheet by India’s National Investigation Agency against Aasiya Andrabi, and her two associates and invoking of draconian law, Public Safety Act, against senior Hurriyat leader, Masarrat Aalam Butt.
The APHC Chairman, Syed Ali Gilani, addressing a gathering in his native Dooru area of Sopore reiterated his demand for granting right to self-determination to the Kashmiris saying that despite oppression, Kashmiri youth were sacrificing their lives to end the Indian occupation of Jammu and Kashmir.
The Chairman of Hurriyat forum, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, addressing Juma congregation at Jamia Masjid in Srinagar said that the Hurriyat leadership was never against elections but holding polls in the presence of lacs of Indian troops was nothing but a military exercise aimed at damaging the Kashmir cause.
The Chairman of Tehreek-e-Hurriyat, Muhammad Ashraf Sehrai, in a statement in Srinagar condemned the police raids on the houses of party leaders, Shakeel Ahmed Itoo and Mufti Abdul Ahad, and slapping of draconian PSA for the third time on two youth, Muhammad Amin Ahangar and Abdul Ahad Teli. Hurriyat leader, Mukhtar Ahmad Waza, addressed a gathering in Khiram Sirhama area of Islamabad district.
People staged a demonstration in Sever area of Kupwara district, today, against the arrest of two youth.
The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, in a report posted on its website said that journalists in occupied Kashmir faced restrictions and attacks between 8th and 30th October, 2018.
It mentioned different incidents of attacks and curbs on the journalists in the territory during the period.
In London, speakers at a Kashmir conference said that Indian troops were committing gross human rights violations in occupied Kashmir.
The speakers included Lord Quarban Hussain, AJK Prime Minister, Raja Farooq Haider Khan, Altaf Ahmed Butt, Afzal Khan, Dr Nazir Gilani and Barrister Iftikhar Gilani.
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