JAMMU, 4 October — For the fourth and final phase of polling in Kashmir elections officials are being airlifted to the far flung areas of militancy-infested hilly Doda district. Polls in these areas are set for Oct. 8. While the government conducted these poll operations, 15 persons including two security force officials and a soldier were killed in separate incidents in the state.
In the fourth phase the six assembly seats of Doda would go to poll. But polling in Lolad constituency of Baramulla has been postponed following the assassination of state’s Law Minister and National Conference candidate Mushtaq Lone during an election campaign.
A government spokesman said that with the approval of the Election Commission, the poll authorities have chalked out a program for air-dropping of election material and airlifting of the staff to the areas of Ramban, Doda, Bhaderwah, Banihal and Kishtawar ahead of the forthcoming round of balloting in the state.
Thousands of paramilitary troops have been stationed in various constituencies of the Doda district. Officials here said that heavy troop deployment would be made in the hilly areas of Doda to ensure peaceful and smooth polling. The campaigning in the district ends Sunday and the polling is scheduled for Tuesday.
Meanwhile, police here said that eight militants and an army officer and a soldier were killed in a gun battle between troops an the militants this morning in Behrote village of Poonch district. An official statement said the eight men were shot as they tried to infiltrate into the Balakote area in the south of the state. Another six alleged infiltrators were killed on Wednesday.
A spokesman said that an army convoy intercepted a group of infiltrators trying to cross over to the Indian side of Kashmir from across the border. The militants opened fire on the troops killing an army captain and a soldier. In another incident, a senior police official was killed and two soldiers of the state police were injured in a gun battle with the militants at Hiranagar in Kathua district of Jammu region. Police cordoned off Hiranagar area late yesterday and started house to house search. During the searches some militants opened fire on the police party killing a Deputy Superintendent of police Jagtar Singh on the spot. Two other policemen were also injured and were hospitalized in Jammu.
In yet another incident of violence in the restive Himalayan state, a bus carrying paramilitary troops hit a land mine near Tukawangan in Pulwama district. Six persons including five troopers were injured. They were shifted to hospital.
A top militant of Al-Umar Mujahedeen group was arrested here. The Border Security Force (BSF) personnel arrested Shabir Ahmed Zargar of Al-Umar Mujahedeen group from a hideout in Kaniyar area of Srinagar late yesterday and seized a huge cache of arms and ammunition from his possession.
Separatist leader Umar Farooq said the election would achieve nothing since it failed to address the core of the Kashmir dispute. He accused India of holding the election just to impress the international community.
"We believe that elections or no elections, they are not going to make a difference," Farooq said.
"You cannot have elections when you have more than 450,000 troops present on the ground, when you have militancy around, when you have killings going on," he said.
