In Jammu and Valley, Phase Two tests positive too

The Sunni belt, which forms almost 65 per cent of the vote bank was however not interested. The area is a separatist bastion and home to three top militant commanders, including Hizbul Chief Syed Salahuddin. Here the Rashtriya Rifles was out, coercing people to vote.

In the neighbouring Khan Sahib constituency, the poll fervour was due to anger against the ruling party candidate, Hakeem Mohammad Yasin, a former minister.

In Chadoora there was army coercion though there were people who came out to vote against the NC. In Charar-e-Sharief, finance minister Abdul Raheem Rather drew the voters on account of his good performance.

Beerwah being a separatist and militant bastion witnessed low polling despite the Army stepping in to give a helping hand.

In Ganderbal, where Omar Abdullah’s fate is at stake, the voter turnout was not as good as in neighbouring Kanagan where minister Mian Altaf’s reputation and the influence of his family, a spiritual Gujjar clan, ensured around 50 per cent voting.

Srinagar city witnessed a near-total boycott and the turnout was the lowest. In fact, Habakadal constituency witnessed a turnout of less than one per cent.

The city today woke up to the sound of gunfire and blasts. The battle between two holed-up militants and the security forces encircling them was reaching a decisive end and suddenly the calm had been shattered. Out in the lanes and bylanes of the city, it was clear that the encounter had cast its shadow on everything. The Gogjibagh encounter, not polling, dominated street talk.

People preferred to stay indoors and the polling booths were generally deserted but that was nothing unusual for the city. The post-1990 poll scene in the city has traditionally been one of low voter turnout.

But when the Indian Express team drove out of the city, it came across an altogether different world in Budgam. Budgam city — a Shia-dominated area — was bursting with voter fervour and the polling booths wore a festive look with people waiting impatiently in long queues for their turn.

Some women voters fought with the poll staff, refusing to get their fingers marked by the indelible ink and returning later to cast another vote. At the main polling booth at the Government Girls Higher Secondary School, young girls wore burqas to hide their age.

There was stiff competition between the supporters of Agha Roohullah of the National Conference and his close relative — former NC minister and deserter Agha Mehmood. Both belong to the influential Shia clergy family of Aghas. In fact, the two camps were involved in clashes.

But in the Sunni-dominated villages — which hold the key in this constituency because of their numbers (around 60 per cent of the total votes) — the situation was totally different. Soibug — the village of Hizbul Mujahideen supremo Syed Salahuddin — witnessed subtle coercion by the army.

‘‘Four elders from each locality were called to the camp last evening and requested to ensure a good turnout,’’ said Ghulam Nabi Malik, a 70-year-old villager. Unlike previous polls, there were some willing voters too in this Jamat-e-Islami-dominated village, thanks to a local, Mohammad Kamal, who had joined the fray on the Peoples’ Democratic Party ticket.

A few kilometres away, Chewa village was fuming with anger. A major from the nearby 2 Rashtriya Rifles camp, accompanied by his men, in an armoured vehicle, was herding villagers to take them to the polling booth. The Indian Express team saw them go house to house even as the major planted himself at the booth.

A local boy, Shabir Ahmad, was made to issue a warning on the mosque louspeaker: ‘‘Major sahib has asked me to tell you that if there aren’t 200 people at the booth in 10 minutes, we will go to every home and force everybody out with our guns and lathis.’’

But when the major saw the cameras, he ordered his men out. ‘‘I request you not to take any pictures. We are here to help the villagers,’’ he said and left.

But a group of RR men were, meanwhile, forcing men working in the paddy fields to go and vote with some success. ‘‘Vote te chu zulum baneomut (vote too has turned into supression),’’ said 60-year-old Khazir Mohammad Shah.

The story was same in neighbouring Bundgam, Wadwun and Aarath villages. And in Sehpora village in Beerwah, the RR men had taken a State Road Transport Corporation bus on poll duty to to ferry villagers. ‘‘They herded us from our fields and made announcements on the mosque loudspeaker. We had no choice,’’ said a villager, Syed Mohammad Hussain.

‘‘Most of us were not interested in the boycott either. We were busy working in our fields.’’ Bus driver Abdul Rashid spoke of many such instances.