LAHORE     -   National Assembly Kashmir Committee Chairman Syed Fakhr Imam says he is holding meetings with all relevant quarters to prepare a strategy to highlight the Kashmir dispute at international level. Some meetings have already been held while many more are in the offing, he said while talking to The Nation on Friday.

A former federal minister and former speaker of the lower house of parliament, the leader from Multan said after necessary consultations he would visit all important countries that could influence India to stop atrocities in occupied Kashmir and give the Kashmiris their due rights under the UN Security Council resolutions.

He said the matter would also be raised at important world for a, parliaments and think tanks.

He said Kashmiris have once again rejected the farce of elections, staged by India, in occupied Kashmir by boycotting the process on Thursday. Media reports say complete shutdown was observed on a call given by the Joint Resistance Leadership comprising Syed Ali Gilani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Muhammad Yasin Malik.

The shutdown was also aimed at registering protest against the victimisation and harassment of Hurriyat leaders and their kin by India’s infamous National Investigation Agency, the closure of Kashmir’s main highway for civilians for two days in a week and attack by Indian police and troops on inmates at Srinagar Central Jail. All shops, business establishments and educational institutions remained closed while attendance in government and private offices was very thin. The National Conference and the PDP alleged that uniformed personnel coerced people to vote for the BJP and EVMs malfunctioned in some places with the Congress button not working during the first phase of polling in Poonch area. PDP president Mehbooba Mufti tweeted a video showing voters raising anti-BJP slogans after they were purportedly roughed up by the BSF for not voting for the BJP. Syed Fakhr Imam said the movement going on occupied Kashmir was completely indigenous and Kashmiri people were sacrificing their lives for their rights.