Stage set for tomorrow’s polling in high profile Udhampur LS seat amid high security
Jammu and Kashmir has five Lok Sabha constituencies and each one will go to polls in separate phases because of security reasons.
The National Conference on Monday deplored the “forcible takeover” and subsequent closure of the Kashmir Press Club, alleging that the measure is the latest milestone in dismantling all insignias of democracy.
Party spokesperson Imran Nabi Dar while expressing resentment over the closure of Kashmir Press Club said; “Governments order of closing KPC should not be seen in isolation, rather a part of a battery of assaults which started after the illegal abrogation of Article 370″.
This act is just the culmination of a policy that started with putting the registration of the club in abeyance and then the forceful takeover. Dropping all pretense the government has finally bolted the club. It is deplorable to see how the government could steep so low to even scavenge the leftovers of democracy in Kashmir.
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“I on behalf of our party condemn the closure of KPC in the strongest possible terms,” Dar said.
The violation of the Kashmir Press Club by the J&K administration and local police, Dar said, is part of the continuous process to smother press freedom and democracy in Kashmir.
Joining in the chorus for the restoration of the status quo of the press club and the impending re-registration, he asked the government to refrain from interfering in the affairs of the press club.
“The least it can do is to refrain from dubbing balanced reportage as anti-national and provide an enabling atmosphere, where the KPC conducts free and fair elections for the Constitution of its governing body,” he added.
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