BANDIPORA, Kashmir: With armed troops patrolling shuttered streets and separatist leaders locked up, Indian Kashmiris voted in a state election yesterday, casting their ballots for better roads and civic amenities.

Authorities placed the entire Kashmir Valley under an undeclared curfew yesterday as two north Kashmir assembly constituencies of Bandipore and Sonawari went to polls in the first phase today.

Curfew-like restrictions in Srinagar and other major towns of the valley were imposed early yesterday to foil separatist attempts to march to Bandipore as part of their poll boycott campaign.

Talking to newsmen here last evening, the state chief electoral officer, B.R. Sharma said that 44-45 percent votes were polled in Bandipore while the total average for the ten constituencies that went to polls today was 55 percent.

The turnout in three Kashmir constituencies was a little more than 52 percent, slightly less than in 2002 polls, with many Muslim Kashmiris voting for better local government even if they did not accept Indian rule in their troubled state.

Bandipora lies 60 km north of Srinagar, the summer capital of Muslim-majority Kashmir and heart of the separatist rebellion. Srinagar will vote later in the seven-stage election.

At least six people were injured when police fired tear gas and used batons to disperse scores of demonstrators protesting against the elections in Bandipora town.

Separatist leaders, who either want Kashmir to become independent or part of Pakistan, have appealed for an election boycott after some of the biggest anti-India protests were staged in Kashmir this year since an insurgency began in 1989.

The response seemed to be mixed on a chilly morning when temperatures remained below zero at many places in the region. Political parties brought in voters in jeeps to one polling station in Ajas village, while another group of men watched warily from a distance. Some of them then began shouting “Azadi, Azadi.”

Elections were also held yesterday in seven constituencies in the Jammu and Ladakh regions. The average turnout in those seats was about 55 percent, the Election Commission said. But the Kashmir Valley remains the focus after police killed at least 42 people during pro-independence protests this year.