Indian Kashmir prepares for violent vote

Indian Kashmir prepares for violent vote

Terry Friel
and Sheikh Mushtaq
Reuters
Srinagar, India

Islamic militants ambushed a Kashmiri minister's car on Sunday as
the Indian state appeared set for a violent start to voting in
elections that are likely to do little to ease tensions with
Pakistan.

Two policemen died in the attack in the southern village of
Boh, but Tourism Minister Sakina Itoo was not injured, officials
said.

The second attempt on Itoo's life comes after Jammu and
Kashmir state's law minister was shot dead on Wednesday and as
violence mounts ahead of Monday's first round of voting.

Officials say they expect separatists to launch attacks to
disrupt voting in the disputed region at the heart of a military
stand-off that brought India and Pakistan close to war this year.

India's Border Security Force said it had captured nine
members of the banned Jaish-e-Mohammed militant group overnight
in Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir's summer capital, adding the group
planned to disrupt the poll and attack political workers.

Four militants died and three polling booths were torched in
separate incidents overnight near the frontier with Pakistan,
which also saw small arms and mortar fire, officials said.

The army has intercepted a radio call ordering rebels to seize
voter registration cards, possibly to help them enter polling
booths for an attack, defense sources said.

More than 440 people have died since the poll was announced in
early August, including almost two dozen party workers.

India wants a big turnout to bolster the legitimacy of its
rule in the mainly Hindu nation's only Muslim-majority state.

Although analysts expect a better turnout than the 54 percent
at the last poll in 1996, many voters are afraid.

"There is an atmosphere of terror. We will not vote," one man
said in Surankote, near the border, where 12 people died in a
militant raid on Wednesday. "Anything can happen on voting day."

Moderate separatist groups are not contesting the poll and
have urged a boycott. They have called a strike on Monday that is
likely to be observed, as much out of fear as support.

Pakistan, which India accuses of trying to sabotage the poll,
has dismissed the election as a rigged farce.

Voting is being staggered over four days in September and
October. The ruling National Conference party, also part of
India's Hindu nationalist-led coalition government, is almost
certain to be returned.

An agreed solution to the Kashmir dispute is critical to peace
in South Asia, home to a fifth of the world's people.

Analysts say a strong voter turnout would boost India's
position, a poor one Pakistan's. Regardless, they say the
election is unlikely to ease tensions.

"The viewpoints of both India and Pakistan are so far apart
that I don't think there can be any meeting place so far as the
specific question of elections," former Pakistani ambassador to
India Niaz A. Naik told Reuters in Islamabad.

"I think we are reaching a point where there can be no
communication between the countries and it cannot possibly
improve the atmosphere. The only thing it is going to do is to
badly, adversely affect the atmosphere in South Asia."