Azhar Qadri  

No candidate turns up to contest civic body elections. Shopian district, home to the highest number of local militants, had witnessed abduction and killing of three policemen earlier this month .The reluctance in filing the nomination is a reflection of the growing deterioration in the law and order situation in Shopian district, which has emerged as the epicentre of a new militant movement in the region Shopian, which is one of the major apple-producing districts of the Kashmir valley, witnessed massive pro-militant mobilisation in recent years while security forces and militants have frequently clashed in its villages

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, September 30

With only a day left for the filing of nomination papers for the urban local bodies election in south Kashmir’s volatile town Shopian, no one has filed the papers so far to contest the poll.

The last date of filing the nomination papers for the Shopian Municipal Committee, which goes to the polls on October 16 in the fourth phase, is October 1. The Shopian Municipal Committee has 17 Wards and 19,171 electors.

Shopian district, home to the highest number of local militants, had witnessed abduction and killing of three policemen earlier this month which later led to the cancellation of Indo-Pak talks on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.

Shopian District Election Officer Owais Ahmad told The Tribune that no nomination had been filed so far. “No nomination has come so far for the election,” he said.

The official said the administration was “fully prepared” to hold the election and the “entire machinery is in place”.

The reluctance in filing the nomination is a reflection of the growing deterioration in the law and order situation in Shopian district, which has emerged as the epicentre of a new militant movement in the region.

A resident of Shopian dismissed the prospect of holding an election in the town as “something impossible”. “There is too much fear here,” he said.

Shopian, which is one of the major apple-producing districts of the Kashmir valley, witnessed massive pro-militant mobilisation in recent years while security forces and militants have frequently clashed in its villages.

The town witnessed the latest clash on Sunday morning when militants attacked Shopian police station in which one cop was killed.

The civic bodies and panchayat elections in the region are scheduled through October and November and will take place in multiple phases amid boycott by two key political parties – National Conference and Peoples Democratic Party.

The first phase of the civic elections will be held in the state on October 8.

Courtesy: The Tribune: 1st Oct, 2018