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Journalism of Courage
Despite terror attacks at several places an estimated 35 per cent voters exercised their franchise in six constituencies of militancy-infested Doda district and Lolab in Kupwara in the final phase of Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections.
A militant suicide attack on a booth in Doda killed two security personnel and injured four others. One of the two Lashker-e-Toiba militants in police uniform, who carried out the attack at the Town Hall polling station just 15 minutes after the voting began, was killed in an exchange of fire with security personnel.
Another militant, believed to have been injured, managed to escape and a hunt was on to nab him. The CRPF personnel killed were indenfified as D.S. Arde and constable Ramesh Kumar.
Militants detonated three improvised explosive devices, one near a polling booth, in Banihal and Doda constituencies where balloting was being held.
Reports reaching New Delhi said over 40 per cent voters cast their votes in all the six constituencies of Doda district, 34.14 per cent in Lolab and 25 per cent in repolling in some of the constituencies in Pahalgam.
Minister of State for Home Khalid Najeeb Suhrawardy, state chiefs of BJP and BSP, Daya Kishan Kotwal and Sheikh Abdul Rehman respectively, former minister and PCC chief Ghulam Nabi Azad’s kin Mohammad Sharief Niyaz and former Advocate General Mohammad Aslam Goni are among those whose political fate was sealed in the electronic voting machines.
As many as 56 candidates are in the fray in Banihal, Inderwal, Doda, Baderwah, Ramban and Kishtwar constituencies in Doda and Lolab in Kupwara which was originally scheduled to go to polls in the first round on September 16. Election in Lolab was countermanded following assassination of Law Minister and National Conference candidate Mushtaq Ahmed Lone on September 11.
Despite the attack on the Town Hall polling station, voters turned up in large numbers to exercise their right of franchise.
Sixty-two-year Mohammad Abdullah Mantoo was the first to walk up to the booth when polling resumed at 9 a.m.
Mantoo was followed by a stream of voters who enthusiastically came out to defy militants threats to vote.
Within one and half hour as many as 128 out of 575 voters exercised their franchise there. Abrar Ahmed a class 11th student who voted said, “I have voted for a change and for better governance despite the militants threat. First time we thought that we will not vote after the attack. But when some people came out to vote we also decided to exercise our right of franchise in support of democracy.”
“The attack has not downed the spirit of people who are not affected at all. They have come out in large numbers in most of the constituencies of Doda district,” senior Superintendent of Police (Doda) Saji Mohan told reporters.
Earlier police detained acting Chairman of Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front Javid Ahmad Mir and four other party activists scuttling a Hurriyat Conference plan to stage an anti-poll demonstration in Srinagar on Tuesday.
