Mehbooba Mufti escapes attack; Syed Ali Shah Geelani dismisses elections as “fauji drama”; India rejects US intervention on Kashmir
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    • People’s Democratic Party president Mehbooba Mufti escaped unhurt when anti-election protesters stoned her motorcade at Pulwama on November 241.

    The Congress party on November 24 termed the huge voter turn-out in the first two phases of the Assembly poll in Jammu and Kashmir as a clear indication of the people’s rejection of the separatist mandate. About 65 per cent of the electorate voted in the first two phases of the seven-phase poll in the State2.

    However, separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani lashed out on pro-India political parties like the NC and PDP for their participation in the electoral process and dismissed the elections as a “military exercise.” Speaking at a press conference in Srinagar on November 26, Geelani charged that the elections were a “fauji drama” and claimed that Kashmir’s “pro-freedom people” were not a part of this “farcical exercise3.”

    Meanwhile, amid reports that the next US administration might appoint former President Bill Clinton as a mediator on Kashmir, India on November 26 rejected any third party intervention and asserted that the matter would have to be addressed bilaterally with Pakistan. This assertion was made by EAM Mukherjee after talks with Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi in New Delhi4.

    In other developments, security forces shot dead five militants in a fierce gun battle in Bandipora on November 27, and averted a major tragedy with the timely detection of an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) in Pulwama district5.

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