SRINAGAR, 5 April — The main separatist alliance in Indian Kashmir said yesterday it would not contest this year’s state election, saying ballots could not solve the problems of the region. "We are not participating in any electoral process to the assembly. We have said it in the past and we repeat it today," Abdul Gani Bhat, chairman of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference, told a news conference.

Hurriyat’s announcement came after newspaper reports that some of its leaders were interested in participating in the state polls expected to be held in September-October this year. Last month, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee urged all Kashmiri groups to take part in the election for the Jammu and Kashmir state assembly.

"Elections do not provide an answer to the question we ask. We have taken a stand in 1996, not to participate in any elections. That decision has not been reviewed or reversed until today," Bhat said.

Hurriyat wants a 1948 UN resolution calling for a plebiscite to decide if Kashmir should be folded into India or Pakistan implemented. Bhat said the US and China should work together to resolve conflict issues in South Asia, including Kashmir.

"There is a realization (in the world community) that the conflicting approaches by Americans and Chinese put together can produce a crisis in South Asia," he said, adding that if the two huge countries worked together the dispute over the Himalayan region could be solved.

Hurriyat — which bands nearly two dozen social, political and religious groups — has said it will hold its own elections after Indian leaders questioned its representative character.

Earlier this year, Hurriyat announced a six-member election commission which it said would conduct elections in the Indian and Pakistani parts of Kashmir to choose true representatives.

Vajpayee, who plans to visit the troubled region shortly, has vowed to hold free and fair state elections after allegations that earlier polls were rigged.

The Hurriyat chairman said arrested Kashmiri leader Yasin Malik has been tortured by the police, damaging one of his ears. Malik, who heads the pro-independence Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), was arrested on March 25 after the seizure of $100,000 from a couple who allegedly confessed to bringing the money for him illegally. Malik denied any links to the seized cash.

Bhat told reporters Malik had been hit on the head by police, injuring the ear on which he had an operation in the United States last year. He blamed Kashmir’s government for arresting and torturing Malik as "he (Malik) and other Hurriyat leaders were involved in a political process to get the issue of Kashmir resolved as per the wishes of the people of Kashmir."

10 killed in fresh violence

Ten people including a former activist commander and three members of his family have been killed in Kashmir, police said yesterday. Gunmen shot dead Gori Mohammad Shafi, a former commander of the Tehreek-e-Jehad Islami (TJI) group, his wife, sister and brother-in-law on Wednesday night.

They said Shafi surrendered to Indian security forces a few years ago and was working with the army as an informer. The incident took place near Bandipura township 55 km north of Srinagar. No group has claimed responsibility for the killings.

Separately, unidentified assailants beheaded a villager in Budgam district west of Srinagar, police said. Two members of the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba were killed in a gun battle with security forces in south Kashmir. Elsewhere a soldier, militant and a civilian had also been killed in separate shootouts in the valley in the past 24 hours, police said.