Shehla Rashid Cries For Kashmir, Quits Electoral Politics indiatoday.in

Activist Shehla Rashid announced her disassociation from “mainstream politics” in Jammu and Kashmir on Wednesday. Rashid, a former vice-president of the JNU Students’ Union, said her announcement was prompted by the central government’s move to hold Block Development Councils elections in Jammu and Kashmir, where communication restrictions are in place. The restrictions were imposed after the Centre moved to scrap Jammu and Kashmir’s special status and to bifurcate the state into two Union Territories.

In a statement, Shehla Rashid called the Block Development Council polls a “sham electoral exercise” being carried out by the Centre “in order to convince the world that it [India] is still a democracy”. Rashid claimed that the “Indian government continues to abduct children in Kashmir, and even as people are deprived of the means to call an ambulance and other emergency services”.