Mehbooba Mufti cancels poll campaign to protest Hezbollah chief’s killing

Srinagar: People’s Democratic Party (PDP) Chief Mehbooba Mufti has said that she has called off her campaign for the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections scheduled for Sunday to protest Hezbollah Chief Hassan Nasrallah’s death in Israeli airstrike in Beirut, the state capital of Lebanon.

Hezbollah confirmed on Saturday that Nasrallah, one of its founders, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut on Friday evening.

The former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister made the announcement on Saturday on social media platform X, claiming that she stands in “solidarity with the Lebanese and Palestinian citizens”.

Announcing the decision to cancel her campaigns for a day, Mufti posted on X, “Cancelling my campaign tomorrow in solidarity with the martyrs of Lebanon & Gaza especially Hassan Nasrullah. We stand with the people of Palestine & Lebanon in this hour of immense grief & exemplary resistance.”

Earlier, protests erupted in Jammu and Kashmir on Saturday as people hit the streets condemning the killing of Hezbollah Chief in an airstrike by Israel.

A protest march held in Budgam witnessed a large number of people, including women and children, holding portraits of the Hezbollah Chief.

Similar protests were held in Srinagar’s old city, and other areas of the state, after Israel announced the killing of the 64-year-old leader of the terrorist group, which was later confirmed by the outfit.

Both Israel and Hezbollah confirmed Nasrallah’s death, which delivered a significant blow to the terrorist group engaged in an armed conflict with Israel.

Israel has conducted a series of airstrikes in Lebanon over the past few days, resulting in more than 800 deaths and displacing many others. This escalation followed Hezbollah’s barrage of rockets into Israel, which came after the detonation of thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies used by the group. Hezbollah has been targeting Israel since the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023. The Israeli army also continues its offensive in Gaza and other parts of Palestine.