SRINAGAR: The electoral scene in Kashmir was bloodied yesterday, when security forces shot at a mob of anti-poll protesters killing a youth and wounding two others at Koil village in south Kashmir’s Pulwama district during the fifth phase of polling.
Voting ended last evening for the fifth phase in Kashmir’s staggered elections. Anti-poll protesters clashed with police and paramilitary, Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) at Koil and other villages of the Pulwama district yesterday morning as the polling began in the six constituencies.
Hundreds of anti-poll protesters mainly youth took to streets in the Koil village to stage angry protests, shouting pro-independence slogans. The mobs who swelled later clashed with Indian police and the CRPF soldiers who responded with tear gas and baton charges to break up the mobs and quell violence.
The protesters mobbed a posse of security personnel and pelted at them heavily. Police and the CRPF troopers opened fire when the mobs refused to budge and continued to pelt the police and paramilitary troopers forcing them to resort to direct firing at the mobs leaving three youths critically wounded.
Anti-poll protests were held in other areas of the Pulwama district where security forces resorted to baton charges and tear smoke shelling.
The polling in the six constituencies which started on a low key picked up later during the day with many polling station witnessing brisk polling while others saw low to moderate voter turnout.
Meanwhile, the separatist Coordination Committee consisting of representatives of both groups of the APHC, local traders and bar association members strongly condemned the killing of youth at Koil Pulwama yesterday.
The committee has called for a general strike today to protest against the visit of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Singh is arriving here this morning and is scheduled to address a public meeting at Shangus in Anantnag district.
In another development, People’s Democratic Party (PDP) President Mehbooba Mufti, once an ally of former Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, yesterday accused him of having created “communal, regional and ethnic divide” in the state.
Addressing election rallies in Bhaderwah constituency from where Azad is contesting as Congress candidate, Mehbooba criticized Azad for “fomenting religious, regional and ethnic dissentions in the state for political purposes”.
“It is, perhaps, for the first time in the history of the state that a chief minister allied himself with a particular region and ethnic group, thereby brewing strong undercurrents of polarization,” she said.
The PDP and the Congress ruled the state in coalition since 2002, but Mufti’s party withdrew support to the government headed by Azad this year, opposing its proposal to allocate forestland to the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board.
The move was bitterly opposed in Muslim-majority Kashmir valley, forcing the government to withdraw it, but that was met by more protests in Hindu-majority Jammu region.
“A chief minister is like a father and he has to treat all his family members fairly,” she said and added that Azad could not do justice to the chair and his policies fueled regional, religious and ethnic tensions.
— With input from agencies
