SRINAGAR, 24 September — A gunbattle erupted between security forces and suspected militants in Kashmir’s main city yesterday, the eve of the second stage in a state election racked by bloodshed.
Police swooped on a house in Srinagar’s Gogji Bagh area on information that militants were inside, a spokesman for Border Security Force said. The two sides exchanged fire, killing one of the policemen.
The fate of another three police officers was unknown several hours after the raid began, the official said. Police sharpshooters were late yesterday deployed to the area.
Officials said security forces were considering a raid into the house to free the police officers believed held captive. Police have cordoned off the area where the raid took place, which is near a paramilitary camp.
Militants launched a string of attacks on security forces and political workers ahead of the second round of voting, which will see polling in the region’s main cities Srinagar and Jammu, and the district of Budgam.
In Anantnag district south of Srinagar, militants targeted a rally of the pro-India People’s Democratic Party. But police said the grenade went off among civilians nearby, wounding eight of them.
Another eight were wounded five kilometers away in Bijbehara, where militants fired a grenade at a police vehicle that missed its target and went off among civilians, police said.
In the same area, militants hurled a grenade at security personnel guarding the Sangham bridge, injuring three of them.
In Srinagar, one of the most heavily garrisoned cities in the world, militants threw grenades at three different stations where voting will take place today.
The biggest toll was in an attack on the Nawa Kadal College, where six troops from Border Security Force who were guarding the station were injured, police said. In other attacks on polling stations, seven security personnel and three civilians were hurt.
In Jammu, police said a soldier was killed in a landmine ambush late yesterday near the garrison town of Udhampur.
Three others, including two security men, were also injured in the blast that occurred in Mahore area outside Udhampur, the police said, adding that another landmine was defused before it could be set off.
About a dozen militants and soldiers were killed and several people wounded in various attacks since Sunday evening in the Himalayan state at the heart of a nine-month military standoff between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan.
Shops shut early as Srinagar, a city of 1.2 million people, prepared for the vote. Several residents said the election was no answer to the cycle of bloodshed. “People are not involved in these elections, we need a healing touch, not elections,” said Sheikh Mushtaq, a doctor.
“There is too much disillusionment. Elections are just a dodging tactic. The basic issue of Kashmir has to be addressed,” said Yaqub Jan, another resident.
Militants have threatened to kill anyone involved in the election and separatist politicians have called for a boycott, saying the vote was no substitute for a UN-supervised plebiscite to decide if the Muslim-majority region should be part of India or Pakistan.
Moderate separatists are not running in the election and have urged a boycott. They have also called a protest strike that is expected to shut down much of the state.
More than 35,000 people have been killed in the 13-year-revolt against Indian rule. More than 470 people, including a state minister and about 30 political workers, have been killed since the elections were called on Aug. 2.
The first of four rounds of voting, which was largely peaceful, was held last week. The last will be on Oct. 8.
India is hoping the vote, which is being staggered to help security forces, will strengthen its rule and weaken the revolt.
Indian Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishna Advani said he hoped the polls would help end separatist violence.
“I look forward eagerly to this election...changing the situation even further and making it possible for India to score...victory in this proxy war,” Advani said in New Delhi.
India calls the violence by the militants in Kashmir a “proxy war” waged by Pakistan and accuses Islamabad of training and arming the militants — charges Pakistan denies.
India sees the elections as a test of Pakistan’s pledge to stop militants crossing into Indian Kashmir. Pakistan rejects the poll as a farce and says infiltration by militants has stopped.
Indian authorities said turnout in the first round was a relatively strong 47 percent but separatist political leader Abdul Gani Bhat said the figure had been rigged.
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf also dismissed the official turnout figure, saying only about 10 percent of voters, at most, went to the polls.
Thousands of extra security have been deployed ahead of today’s vote. Many polling officials have been issued with bulletproof jackets and helmets. “Even though the threat of intimidation is unprecedented, our preparedness is also unprecedented,” said state chief electoral officer Pramod Jain.
Officials said some 100 paramilitary companies (1,000 troops) were being sent to reinforce police already deployed at the 13 state assembly seats of Jammu, the winter capital of India-administered Kashmir, ahead of the voting.
Some 1.8 million people are eligible to vote at 1,030 Jammu polling stations and officials said a third of the booths had been declared prone to attacks by militants.
Jammu is home to much of Kashmir’s one-third Hindu minority.
The army has also strengthened security along the 187-km international border to stem infiltration by militants from the Pakistani side of Kashmir to the frontier Akhnoor and Kathua areas, where balloting will be also held today.
A spokesman for the Indian Army released Monday what he claimed were intercepted wireless messages to local Kashmiri militants from across the border asking them to try and disrupt the legislative elections.
The Greater Kashmir newspaper quoted the Hizbul-Mujahideen group as saying it had ordered attacks on polling stations. The group warned government employees and voters to stay away from polling stations.
