India elections will not solve Kashmir issue:Top cleric

SRINAGAR, Jammu and Kashmir

Kashmir's top cleric said in a Friday sermon that the ongoing elections will not have any bearing on resolving conflict in the region, following a three-day interrogation by Indian authorities in a terror-funding case.

“Elections will continue to be held and governments will come and go but Kashmir issue will remain till it is not resolved,” said Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, who is also a senior pro-independence leader.

The seven-phase parliamentary elections began across India on Thursday. Two constituencies in Jammu and Kashmir went to polls in the first phase. The pro-independence leadership in the region calls for boycotting the elections.

He added that coercion by India was not going to weaken the resistance movement in the region.

“Our stand is based on truth. We won’t change it because of the use of force (by India) as it represents the aspirations of the people of Jammu and Kashmir,” Mirwaiz said to a huge gathering at the Jamia mosque in Srinagar, capital of the Jammu and Kashmir state.

His sermon comes a day after he returned from the National Investigation Agency's questioning in the Indian capital New Delhi in a case related to funding of militancy in the region.

While he had refused to appear for the questioning at first, he went after repeated summons and assurances for his safety in New Delhi.

Most Kashmiri independence leaders and activist have been imprisoned in Indian prisons on charges of being involved in funding militancy in the region, in a crackdown which intensified following a suicide bombing in February that killed at least 40 Indian troops in Jammu and Kashmir.

Jammu and Kashmir, a Muslim-majority Himalayan region, is held by India and Pakistan in parts and claimed by both in full. A small sliver of Kashmir is also held by China.

Since they were partitioned in 1947, the two countries have fought three wars -- in 1948, 1965 and 1971 -- two of them over Kashmir.

Also, in Siachen glacier in northern Kashmir, Indian and Pakistani troops have fought intermittently since 1984. A cease-fire came into effect in 2003.

Some Kashmiri groups in Jammu and Kashmir have been fighting against Indian rule for independence, or for unification with neighboring Pakistan.

According to several human rights organizations, thousands of people have reportedly been killed in the conflict in the region since 1989.