Anti-poll violence left one person dead and 30 others injured on Saturday as a separatists' boycott call failed to deter voters in Jammu and Kashmir with an impressive 57 per cent turnout recorded in 11 constituencies, including in militancy-infested Pulwama and Shopian.Security forces opened fire to disperse about 200 anti-election protesters who turned violent and pelted stones after being stopped from marching towards a polling booth at Quil village in Pulwama district.Fourteen security personnel and three civilians were injured in the violence. One of the injured protesters identified as Muzamil Ahmad Ganai succumbed to injuries at a hospital in Srinagar, officials said. Similar clashes occurred at two other places, injuring three security personnel and 10 civilians.This is the first major incident of violence during polling since the seven-stage exercise began on Nov 17. Nearly 57 per cent of the 8.3 lakh electorate voted amid tight security, election officials said.In the Valley, nearly 47 per cent of electorate voted in the six seats which had recorded just 23.68 per cent polling in 2002 Assembly elections.While Tral recorded 50 per cent, Pampore and Wachi, from where PDP leader mehbooba Mufti is in fray, witnessed 46 per cent turnout.In both Pulwama and Rajapora, 45 per cent of the electorate voted while in Shopian the turnout was 48 per cent. A massive voter turnout was seen in five Assembly segment of Kathua district with 67 per cent of the electorate exercising the democratic right compared to 61.19 per cent in 2002.Bani recorded the highest turnout of 76 per cent followed by Basholi 71 per cent. Kathua saw 64 per cent polling while Billawar and Hiranagar recorded 65 and 58 per cent respectively.Despite the boycott call given by the Separatists' Co-ordination Committee, the first four rounds of the staggered elections held on November 17, 23 and 30 and December seven saw an impressive voter turnout of 69 per cent, 68.29 per cent, 68.22 per cent and 59.33 per cent respectively.A record number of 179 candidates, including five women nominees and 58 independents, are in fray in the 11 seats. Only 97 candidates had contested in these constituencies in 2002 Assembly elections.Prominent among the candidates are Peoples Democratic Party president Mehbooba Mufti, former ministers Ghulam Hassan Khan, Syed Bashir Ahmad and Mohammad Khalil Bandh.Mehbooba, who won the last Assembly election from Pahalgam seat before being elected to Lok Sabha, is contesting from Wachhi seat this time. Although there are 18 other candidates in the fray, NC candidate Showkat Hussain Ganai and ex-MLA Khalil Naik of CPM can pose a serious challenge for the PDP president.Nearly 5,770 polling staff and 20,000 security personnel have been deployed at 1,154 polling booths of which 626 have been identified as ‘sensitive’ and 386 as ‘hypersensitive’.The security was further beefed up following intelligence inputs that militants might target candidates.
