Indian occupation authorities announced on Saturday that municipal elections, the first in 25 years, will be held next month in occupied Kashmir. The polls to municipal corporations, councils and committees will take place in several phases, with the summer capital Srinagar and winter capital Jammu voting on February 1, the chief electoral office said.

Voting in the violence-racked southern districts of Poonch and Rajouri will be held on February 17, the last phase of balloting.

No elections have been held to the local bodies in occupied Kashmir in the past 25 years.

None of the groups active in occupied Kashmir reacted immediately to the election announcement.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2005