Village votes for Geelani, stays off booths

In Dooru village, there are no queues outside the polling station.

In Dooru village, there are no queues outside the polling station. No election posters on the walls, nor any banners hanging over the dusty streets. Men huddle outside shops, women gaze through windows and children run around with their faces flushed and eyes wet by the tear gas only to see if someone betrays 8216;the leader8217;. In this village in Sopore, where defiant Hurriyat hardliner Syed Ali Shah Geelani was born, no one even walked past the polling station on Sunday.

And at a time when Kashmir defied the separatist poll boycott, Dooru did not let Geelani down. 8220;We don8217;t want any roads, jobs or benefits. We only want freedom,8221; says Sayeed Naseer, a 36-year-old businessman.

Pitched battles were fought all through the day between security forces and villagers. Four persons had been injured in the tear gas shelling and baton charge by the security forces. Youngsters carried stones in their hands, fuming with anger at the high voter turnout in neighbouring Dangarpora, the native village of PDP candidate Abdul Rashid Mir who won the 2002 polls from here. 8220;They have betrayed our cause, our dead, but we will never forget what we have suffered8221; says Naseer.

Naseer surrounded by a dozen men gets up from a shop pavement ridiculing the election process. His accent is slightly familiar, his words somewhat heard. Bilal Hassan, an engineering student, talks about graveyards and independence. Even he talks the same way. In Geelani8217;s village every one talks like him, uses the same set of words he has used over the past two decades, and even the Quranic references are from the same pages.

Here, Geelani is followed and revered in style and ideology, but people are quick to add that they do not chase Geelani. 8220;Geelani comes second, first comes the sentiment of azadi. We support boycott because we believe in tehreek movement,8221; says Hassan.

The 79-year-old Hurriyat leader had once contested and won elections from Sopore before the armed rebellion started across the Valley. Today, he is the fiercest opponent of elections are so are the people from his native village. 8220;We will now only vote under UN observers, not till then. We will decide our future by siding with independence, not petty candidates,8221; says Abdul Rashid Rishi, a college student. 8220;Why is India afraid to do that if it is so sure that Kashmiris want to be with it? Let us vote freely, and then see who and what we vote for.8221; Inside the polling booth, the presiding officer looks bored. 8220;No one8217;s came to vote, nor do we expect anyone,8221; says the official. Outside, the people were getting ready, forming small groups to attack the security forces from different sides.