Hurriyat keeps date with eyes8217; and ears8217;

The Hurriyat, which has been aggressively campaigning for a poll-boycott, has an explanation for this. When contacted, it said that it did not attempt to mislead anyone and the Sumo was actually a press vehicle, carrying reporters from an Urdu daily. And the Hurriyat activist just happened to be driving it.

The Hurriyat member said they had six or seven of their own vehicles, carrying labels of APHC, on the road on Sunday, touring the constituency on a mission togather 8220;facts8221;.

The organisation has been aggressively campaigning for a poll boycott and by the end of the day, the Hurriyat had something to show for its efforts. It summoned a Press conference at 5 pm, an hour after polling ended and an hour before the state8217;s Chief Electoral Officer8217;s CEO press briefing.

The Hurriyat presented its line-up of leaders 8212; recently released after being imprisoned for 8220;intimidating8221; voters 8212; at the conference. And to liven things further, they ran a video-tape. It showed slogan-shouting villagers at Kandoora in Beerwah after a National Conference MLA opened fire into a crowd; the scene at the Srinagar hospital where the injured were taken; and an anti-election protest at Maisuma in Srinagar.

There were even a few sound-bytes from officials and a couple paramilitary officers, talking about the low turn-out of voters. Whether the men from central paramilitary forces confused the Hurriyat team for real journalists and thus talked to them, was not clear.

TheHurriyat then distributed a five-page document at the conference which included a list of 59 booths visited by a 8220;reporter, photographer, videographer and others,8221; led by Moulvi Mohammad Ashraf, Advocate. For each booth, the report mentioned the total number of registered voters and the number of votes cast when the Hurriyat News Service8217; visited the booths.

The other briefing of the evening 8212; by the CEO, organised by the State Government8217;s Information department 8212; was cancelled when in a departure from precedent, the Election Commission ruled there would be no polling-day Press conferences by CEOs in the State and the only official briefing will be held in Delhi.

The Commission has no problem if the CEOs in the State issue press-releases giving details of the turn-out and the main incidents of violence during polling. But they can8217;t take questions which is disappointing because the official press conference is a chance to get more details on reports of polling day incidents.

The EC has also shotdown some other plans made by the Information Department like conducting pressmen around the constituency and flying a media team to Kargil to witness the polling there.

Perhaps correctly, the EC thought the tours might be used to show the ruling National Conference in a better light. The Hurriyat obviously has no qualms of this kind.