News
Kashmiris shun polls amid fear of violence
ANANTNAG: Kashmiris trickled into polling stations on Thursday in the shadow of militant violence, in the latest stage of India’s five-week election that saw much higher turnout elsewhere in the country.
The Muslim-majority and volatile Kashmir valley posed a heightened challenge for security forces on the first of the three days of polling there.
Voting was light to non-existent at heavily guarded polling stations in areas of Anantnag constituency after a campaign of intimidation by local rebel groups.
“I voted because if we send the right person to the Indian parliament he will raise our voice for azadi (freedom),” said defiant resident Umair, reflecting widespread separatist sentiment in the area.
In the town of Tral, 35 kilometres from the main city of Srinagar, the streets were empty except for paramilitary forces and police, with not a single vote cast at one polling station by noon.
Very few in the picturesque Himalayan valley would be expected to support election frontrunner Narendra Modi, a hardline Hindu nationalist who is leading campaigning for the BJP. The election may well propel Modi to power, a prospect that has Kashmir’s 12.5 million people scrabbling to determine what it would mean for them.
India’s sizeable Muslim minority of 150 million is wary of the 63-year-old, whom many blame for failing to prevent communal riots in 2002 in which more than 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, were killed in Gujarat, where he is still chief minister. In its election manifesto, the BJP vows to uphold India’s territorial integrity and abrogate a clause in the constitution that grants Jammu and Kashmir a degree of autonomy.
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk