POLITICS: Violence Increases in Kashmir as Elections Near End

By Ranjit Devraj Reprint | | Print |

Ranjit Devraj

NEW DELHI, Oct 2 2002 (IPS) - Violence increased dramatically in the disputed territory of Kashmir on Wednesday with militants making a last-bid attempt to disrupt the final phase of a staggered four-part elections ending on Oct. 8.

At least 18 people have been killed in attacks by militants based in neighbouring Pakistan since the third phase of the elections were conducted Tuesday which, despite the violence and death threats saw 42 percent of voters turning out to cast their ballots.

A time bomb ripped apart a bus carrying Hindu pilgrims to the hill shrine of Vaishnodevi in Jammu district killing two and injuring 21 others Wednesday morning, according to police reports.

The victims were mostly from northern Punjab and Uttar Pradesh states and neighbouring Nepal and the state’s police chief A.K. Suri said he believed Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Toiba (Soldiers of God) and the Jaish-e-Mohammed (Army of Mohammed) were involved.

Another pro-Pakistan militant group, the Hizbul Mujahideen, meanwhile, claimed responsibility for two landmine blasts which resulted in the deaths of 12 men of the para-military border security force (BSF).

The attacks in Awantipura on Tuesday and Tral on Wednesday were carried out on BSF troops engaged in clearing roads through which election officers were to pass.

Four workers of the ruling pro-India, National Conference party were shot dead by militants in the sensitive border district of Kupwara apparently for defying orders issued by various groups the elections were to be boycotted.

Among those killed in the runup to the elections was Mushtaq Ahmed Lone, the state law minister who was shot dead at an election rally by a man wearing a burqa, a garment worn by orthodox Muslim women which covers them from top to toe leaving apertures to breathe and see through.

Pakistan has called the elections a sham and one designed to perpetuate Indian rule in a territory it has claimed for more than 50 years but denies giving support to so-called ”jihadist” groups.

Given a choice, most Kashmiris would like independence for their Himalayan homeland but failing, that most would prefer that it remained an Indian state as several surveys have shown.

Noted psephologist Yogendra Yadav described Tuesday’s turnout as ”very encouraging” given that the third phase included districts such as Anantnag and Pulwama where separatism has long been rife.

Yadav said that the high turnout may be the result of more people coming out to vote in order to ensure the defeat of the National Conference (NC) party of chief minister Farooq Abdullah, an ally of the pro-Hindu, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ruling at the centre.

Sensing the mood, Abdullah’s son and political heir Omar Abdullah, currently a minister in the cabinet of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee has announced that his party may soon opt out of the multi-party National Democratic Alliance (NDA) led by the BJP.

According to Yadav the good news for India is that the present elections have thrown up genuine competition for power among political parties with the NC now under pressure from the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) of Mufti Mohammed Sayeed, who once served as home minister in a federal cabinet.

The elections are being conducted under the glare of international media and of diplomatic teams from various countries to counter charges that voters are being coerced into participating in the polls by the Indian army.

Pakistan, which was carved out of colonial India in 1947 as a homeland for the sub-continent’s Muslims, claims Kashmir on the grounds that it has a Muslim-majority population and has fought three wars with India in bids to gain complete control over the territory.

But India says Pakistan already controls a third of the territory and that the remainder is only 65 percent Muslim. At least 35 percent of people in Indian Kashmir follow Hinduism while another five percent are Lamaist Buddhists.

The two portions are separated by the militarized Line of Control (LoC) or ceasefire line along which heavy artillery firing has been reported ever since the first phase of the elections were conducted on Sep. 16.

Pakistan wants the Kashmir issue to be decided through a plebiscite in which Kashmiris can vote to join India or Pakistan but India would prefer to freeze the LoC into an international border. Officially, India insists that the whole of Kashmir is integral to it.

In Feb. 1999, the two countries agreed under the Lahore Declaration to peacefully resolve all outstanding issues between the two countries including Kashmir but the following year saw the two countries fighting a bloody war over control over several peaks in Kargil district which falls on the LoC.

The war resulted in a breakdown of diplomatic ties between the nuclear-armed neighbours which have worsened with each attack by militants in Kashmir or deeper within Indian territory.

An attack by a four-man squad on Indian parliament in December last year provoked New Delhi to move some 700 million troops to the LoC and the regular border with Pakistan and the two countries had to be restrained from actually going to war in June through top-level international diplomacy led by U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell.

But ”jihadist” attacks have continued, the latest being the massacre of 30 people at the Swaminarayan temple in Gandhinagar, capital of western Gujarat state by two men armed with Kalashnikov rifles and grenades on Sep. 24, the day on which the second phase of the Kashmir elections were held.

Apart from the troops deployed on the border since December India has more than 75,000 men in uniform throughout the state to ensure security for candidates, voters and election officials.

POLITICS: Violence Increases in Kashmir as Elections Near End

By Ranjit Devraj Reprint | | Print |

Ranjit Devraj

NEW DELHI, Oct 2 2002 (IPS) - Violence increased dramatically in the disputed territory of Kashmir on Wednesday with militants making a last-bid attempt to disrupt the final phase of a staggered four-part elections ending on Oct. 8.
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