Author: Myra MacDonald and Sanjeev
Miglani
Publication: Yahoo News
Date: October 2, 2002
URL: http://in.news.yahoo.com/021002/137/1vvou.html
Eighteen people died in the bloodiest
polling day yet in Kashmir as a third round of elections were held in the
troubled state.
Gunmen killed eight people on a
bus on Tuesday, and six troops died when their vehicle ran over a landmine,
believed to be planted by Islamic militants. Two militants, a political
activist and an Indian soldier died in separate incidents.
Despite the violence, the election
commission said turnout was 41 percent, slightly lower than the 47 percent
and 42 percent recorded in the first two rounds.
Turnout was swelled by heavy voting
in Hindu-dominated areas in the south of the state, while in the volatile
separatist heartland to the north, as few as 25 percent voted.
India sees the election, which ends
on October 8, as a means of enhancing the legitimacy of its rule in its
only Muslim-majority state and has hailed the good turnout as a victory
of the ballot over the bullet.
It has blamed Pakistan for a surge
in separatist violence which has killed more than 600 since the polls were
called on August 2. Islamabad denies encouraging the militancy and says
it gives only moral support to the Kashmiri "freedom struggle".
Just as polls opened, three suspected
Islamic militants wearing police uniforms attacked a bus travelling from
New Delhi to the Himalayan region, riddling it with automatic fire as terrified
passengers huddled on the floor.
Passenger Bhushan Lal told Reuters
victims were left lying in pools of blood. Police said late on Tuesday
that eight civilians died -- raising the death toll from seven initially
announced -- and nine were injured.
"The fire was so heavy, everybody
was screaming, crying for help," said Wanchuk Norbu, a student who was
also on the bus.
Police said they killed one of the
guerrillas and were searching the area for the other two.
As polls closed, six paramilitary
troops died when their vehicle triggered a landmine explosion in Pulwama
district in the Kashmir Valley, the heartland of a separatist revolt which
has killed at least 35,000 since it started 13 years ago.
A paramilitary spokesman said two
men were also injured in the blast in the volatile region, where Islamic
militants, who have vowed to derail the poll, frequently use landmines
to attack their targets. No further details were available.
MILITANTS "DESPERATE"
"After a very successful and violence-free
poll in the first and second phase, our friends across (in Pakistan) were
desperate," Chief Electoral Officer Pramod Jain told reporters.
"Despite a very high level of security
there have been a series of incidents today in all districts that went
to polls."
India sees the election as a test
of a pledge made by Pakistan earlier this year to stop Islamic militants
infiltrating into Indian Kashmir -- a commitment which helped avert a war
in June between the two nuclear-armed rivals.
It has blamed anti-poll violence
for scaring away voters. Pakistan has dismissed the election as a farce,
while Kashmir's main separatist groups have urged a boycott.
In the traditional centres of separatist
support in the Kashmir Valley, many voters stayed away, saying the poll
was no solution to the dispute over Kashmir's future.
"This election is a fraud, we want
freedom," said Gul Mohammed Butt, who works in a garage in the town of
Anantnag, the main town in a district which had only 25 percent turnout.
The state's ruling National Conference
party is expected to retain power in an election boycotted by moderate
separatists and being fought mainly by pro-Indian parties and a few independents.
Villagers along the heavily guarded
national highway from Srinagar to Anantnag said they would not vote despite
pressure.
"Security forces came in this morning
and they asked us to go and vote, we promised them we will go... but we
are not going," said Farooq Ahmad, threshing rice on a farm by the roadside.
The army denied soldiers had ordered
people to vote.
Police quickly broke up an anti-poll
protest in Anantnag.
"We want freedom!" a small group
chanted as soldiers armed with automatic weapons patrolled the otherwise
deserted streets.
In Hindu-dominated areas in the
Jammu region to the south, people queued up to cast their votes. In the
district of Kathua, where the bus was attacked, turnout was the highest
at 59 percent.
"The violence has become part of
our life, but voting is something that we have to do," farmer Randhir Singh
said.
Suspected rebels attacked several
polling stations with grenades and automatic rifles in the Kashmir Valley,
injuring almost a dozen paramilitary soldiers.
A shadowy rebel group, Al-Arifeen,
claimed responsibility for at least a dozen attacks, without saying which
ones, a local news agency said. The group had also said it was behind the
killing of the state law minister last month.
Moderate separatists boycotting
the poll say there can be no substitute for a U.N.-mandated plebiscite
to decide whether Kashmir should stay with India or join Pakistan, and
militants have vowed to target anyone involved in the election.
The last of four rounds of voting
will be next Tuesday in another of the state's most dangerous areas. Counting
is due to begin for all regions on October 10.
(With additional reporting by Sheikh
Mushtaq in SRINAGAR and Ashok Pahalwan in JAMMU)
