Indian Team Heads for Kashmir Amid Fresh Violence

19/09/2002| IslamWeb

Eight soldiers were hurt in a land mine blast Thursday in Indian Kashmir as the nation's chief election commissioner began a tour of the state ahead of the second round of a violence-plagued poll. The Election Commission has said it fears further bloodshed in the next three stages of the high-stakes assembly election in Jammu and Kashmir which is at the root of a nine-month-old military standoff between India and Pakistan.

More than 460 people have been killed since the vote was announced on August 2 in India's only Muslim-majority state, racked by a 13-year-old separatist revolt. The second round of the election will be held next Tuesday.

The commission said it expected militants to try harder to scare people from voting after an unexpectedly high 47 percent turnout in the first stage.

Its comments came as the United States said infiltration across the line of control into Indian Kashmir rose in August and September after falling in June and July.

The line of control divides Kashmir between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan.

Islamic militants have vowed to kill anyone involved in the elections that separatist groups have said are no substitute for a 1948 U.N.-mandated plebiscite to decide whether Kashmir should be folded into India or Pakistan.

The land mine went off in Bandipora town, one of the areas where the first phase of voting in the election that India hopes will boost the legitimacy of its rule in Kashmir ended on Monday.

Islamabad, which also wants a plebiscite to be held to determine Kashmir's future, has dismissed the vote as a farce.

Five soldiers, another security person and two civilians were injured in the land mine explosion, a police officer said. He had no further details about the incident.

A motorcade of two candidates from India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party came under heavy fire in the southern Kashmir Valley Wednesday evening but the two men were unhurt, he said.

The motorcade attack took place in Pulwama district which votes on October 1 in the election that is being staggered to allow security forces time to move across the volatile region.

Polling Monday in the first phase was largely peaceful. But the Election Commission has warned of guerrilla attacks in more dangerous areas that vote early next month.

Chief Election Commissioner James Lyngdoh was due to tour Pulwama and Anantnag in south Kashmir where he said there could be bloodshed because it was the nerve center of the revolt against Indian rule.

"They will review the poll arrangements. It's a two-day trip," an Election Commission official said.

Five soldiers were killed Wednesday in a gunbattle with security forces in a forest in the Rajouri district, police said. There was no word on militant casualties.

WOUNDS RUN DEEP

"Your wounds are deep," Sonia Gandhi, head of India's main opposition Congress party, told an election rally in Srinagar. "I want to heal those wounds and bring to you, peace and happiness."

Her party said the Italian-born Gandhi had ignored the advice of security agencies not to travel to the volatile region.

Two members of Kashmir's ruling party were gunned down on Wednesday in downtown Srinagar which votes next Tuesday.

An Indian defense officer said Pakistani troops opened artillery fire on Indian positions in the Tangdhar sector on Wednesday night along the line of control.

India, which accuses Pakistan of cross-border firing to help militants cross into its part of Kashmir, has said the state election will be a key test of Islamabad's pledge to halt rebel incursions.

The United States said Thursday infiltration across the line of control into Indian Kashmir was rising.

U.S. Ambassador to India Robert Blackwill said the United States expected Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf to honor a commitment to stop Islamic militants infiltrating into Indian Kashmir.

"Infiltration is certainly still going on. Our judgement is it is up in August and up in September," he told Indian television channels, adding that it had fallen in June and July.

Islamabad says the infiltration has largely stopped except by rogue elements.

Deputy Election Commissioner S. Chatterjee said rebels could target people who voted Monday to deter others from turning up at polling stations in later rounds.

Indian law requires voters to be marked with indelible ink to prevent them from voting twice. But people in Kashmir say this exposes them to militant reprisals.

"In the entire state, there is no room for any complacency because events have proved they (the militants) can move anywhere and strike," Chatterjee said.

PHOTO CAPTION

An Indian Border Security Force soldier frisks a Kashmiri youth as others wait their turn during a search operation in Srinagar, India, Thursday, Sept. 19, 2002. Security has been beefed up in the Kashmiri valley before the second round of crucial elections scheduled on Sept. 24. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)