SRINAGAR: Two days ahead of the crucial seventh and the final phase of the state assembly polls here, two paramilitary Central Reserve Police Force troopers were killed in a militant ambush even as the authorities imposed curfew-like restrictions in parts of capital city yesterday.

Police said a CRPF patrol party was fired upon by militants near the bus stand in Sopore town of north Kashmir Baramulla district, 54 km from here this afternoon. “Two critically injured troopers succumbed to injuries in the hospital where they had been taken for treatment,” a senior police officer said here.

The officer also said the militants had fired at the CRPF patrol in the town from a close range and later escaped with two automatic rifles of the two troopers. The area was cordoned off and searches were carried out to trace out the assailants. Markets in the busy Sopore town were immediately closed after the shootout as tension gripped the entire area.

Meanwhile, authorities imposed curfew-like restrictions in the old city Nowhatta area of summer capital Srinagar yesterday to prevent anti-poll protests on the eve of the voting scheduled for the eight constituencies of capital city.

The decision was taken after yesterday’s large-scale anti-poll protests and violence in old city areas where protesting mobs had snatched the rifle of a guard assigned for security of an independent candidate.

As the authorities here gear up for the seventh and final phase of the staggered assembly elections in Kashmir, voter turnout on Dec. 24 could be the litmus test for mainstream parties in the fray here. Despite huge voter turnouts, around 65 percent so far during the last six phases, any substantial political campaign by any of the major participants like the National Conference, Congress and the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Srinagar is conspicuous by its absence.

The separatist leaders, whose poll boycott calls did not deter voters from coming out to exercise franchise in the six phases here so far, have everything at stake on Dec. 24 when voting is scheduled here for the eight constituencies of Batmaloo, Amira Kadal, Sonawar, Khanyar, Eidgah, Zadibal, Habba Kadal and Hazratbal.

Ever since the separatist campaign began here in 1989, all the elections held in these eight constituencies so far have never recorded a double figure poll percentage for any of these constituencies. The separatists have not called for a total shutdown on the voting day, but have asked people to march for a massive sit-in at the historic Lal Chowk in the city. The worries for the administration today would be multi-dimensional.

They cannot resort to the hitherto effective practice of enforcing restrictions to ensure that people stay indoors and nobody disturbs the fragile law and order situation in the city. They have to keep the city open, but their problem is how do they tell a voter apart from a separatist marcher when people come out of their homes on Dec. 24.