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Mohammad Syed of Bandipora beaten up by soldiers for not voting
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By
IOL South Asia Correspondent
NEW
DELHI, September 19 (IslamOnline) - Some of the aura of “success”
and “fair play” officially claimed for the first phase of Jammu
and Kashmir assembly election of Monday, September 16, wore off
quickly as more and more reports of coercion began to pour in from
isolated poll booths.
Rigging
is a fact of life in Indian elections nationwide. Jammu and Kashmir
has been more unfortunate in this respect, which is one of the reasons
why youths frustrated by ballot resort to bullet. That invites greater
repression from the state, which in turn fuels further popular
resentment, and the vicious spiral takes on a momentum of its own.
Local
newspapers like Kashmir Times and Greater Kashmir reported Wednesday,
September 18, and Tuesday, September 17, extensive infraction of
electoral law at the hands of anti-poll rebels as well as government
forces.
One
police constable was killed in gun battle with rebels, six people were
hurt in explosions at or near polling stations, while another six
explosive devices were defused by security forces at other places.
According
to one report in Greater Kashmir, Kulangam village in Kupwara
district, had quite a few people who did not want to have anything to
do with elections. “Several of the 2,000 residents said the army was
intimidating those who had planned to boycott the polls”, the report
said.
“I
was sitting in my house, taking tea, when three or four army people
knocked on the door. They said, ‘Go to the polling station and cast
your vote. Why are you sitting inside’,” shopkeeper Mushtaq Ahmad
told Greater Kashmir.
Caught
between militants and the military, common Kashmiris are damned if
they vote, and damned still if they don’t. As many as 24
electioneering activists of different political parties were gunned
down by anti-poll rebels after the announcement of election dates.
In
growing desperation, rebels killed J&K law minister Mushtaq Ahmad
Lone as tourism minister Sakina Itoo and industry minister Mustafa
Kamal barely escaped repeated murder attempts last week. People who
have been seen campaigning or voting are fearful.
The
23-party separatist outfit All Party Hurriyat Conference (APHC)
boycotting polls claimed the elections had been rigged. APHC chief
Abdul Ghani Bhat told a press conference in Srinagar Tuesday that
security forces had “coerced people to vote”.
Local
media reported that a lower rate of polling had been recorded than in
earlier elections. Officially, 47 percent polling was recorded in
Poonch and 46 percent in Rajouri district. However, the two districts
had polled 69.21 percent and 60.9 percent respectively in 1996. The
fall is attributed to militants warning to voters not to participate
in elections.
Muzamil
Jaleel of the Indian Express, one of the major national dailies of
India, reported from Handwara that initially voters were frightened of
rebels. In the early hours a few voters began to trickle in
hesitatingly to the polling stations.
But
as the day progressed “dozens of men and women walked towards
polling booths in Handwara town and adjoining villages. The enthusiasm
was unprecedented and people lined up with smiling faces, brushing
aside all fears of militant retribution”.
This
required tremendous courage, because Handwara had witnessed some of
the worst rebel violence in the run-up to polls. Militants killed an
independent candidate, Abdur Rahman Sheikh, along with his two nephews
and put up posters with death threats warning residents not to vote.
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Militant attack on Congress Party office in Srinagar |
Jaleel
said voter enthusiasm dwindled late in the morning as army personnel
appeared on the scene and began to coerce villagers to go out and
vote. “They barged in and asked everybody to come out. We did try to
resist, but they did not listen. They pushed us with their rifle
butts,” complained Ghulam Mohammad Sofi, a shopkeeper.
The
enthusiastic mood of voters was curdled by coercion. The army herded a
group of citizens, taking them to the nearest polling station. “The
crowd started shouting slogans, and the army men left us alone. We
will not vote at any cost now,” an irate Sofi declared.
Jaleel
reported the case of a 25-year-old artist who was beaten up by armymen
for staying home instead of going out to vote. “I was slapped and
hit with rifle butts,” artist Abdul Hameed Dar complained.
“We
had expected a good turnout, but the army ruined it,” rued political
activist Abdul Hamid Wani, 26, who was a polling agent for one of the
candidates. Locals said the unnecessary coercion by the army had
turned off enthusiastic voters.
Many
boycotted polls not because they were afraid of militants but because
they resented army arm-twisting. “The boycott was provoked by (the
army) unnecessarily forcing people to vote. They would have come on
their own”, said Wani.
The
voting shows an overall mixed pattern of free will and coercion.
