United Nations to study reports about India’s attempt to rig polls in Kashmir: UN spokesman

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 19 (APP): The United Nations is set to study reports about India’s attempts at rigging the upcoming elections in Jammu and Kashmir, the Secretary-General’s Deputy spokesman said, while emphasizing that all communities should be “fairly” treated and represented.

Responding to a question at the daily news briefing in New York about permitting temporary residents in the Muslim-majority Indian occupied Kashmir to register as voters; Spokesman Farhan Aziz Haq said the matter would “need to be studied.”

“But,” he added, “the basic principle that we followed is that for any disputes, it’s important to make sure that all of the communities feel being fairly treated and fairly represented.”

In Islamabad, the Pakistan Foreign Office spokesman categorically rejected India’s pre-polling manipulations in the occupied Jammu and Kashmir, and called on the international community to take cognizance of its attempts at effecting illegal demographic changes in the region.

In a statement, the spokesman said the latest act of permitting temporary residents in the occupied region to register as voters “is a clear manifestation of the treacherous Indian design to influence the outcome of ‘so-called’ elections” in the territory.

“Pakistan reiterates its complete rejection of India’s entire litany of steps aimed at turning the Muslim majority in [occupied Jammu and Kashmir] into a minority — including the formulation of the so-called ‘Delimitation’ Commission and its baseless report, the issuance of fake Kashmiri domiciles to millions of outsiders, and changes in the property laws,” the FO statement added.

The statement came in the wake after the chief electoral officer in the occupied valley, Hirdesh Kumar, announced that non-locals living ordinarily could register their names in the voting list.

“Jammu and Kashmir is likely to get around 25 lakh additional voters, including outsiders, after the special summary revision of electoral rolls,” The Wire quoted Kumar as saying.