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| Baramulla records 40% turnout, Leh 61% in final phase of polling | | Clashes in Sopore, Baramulla, Sgr * 4 injured in 2 incidents of firing * Shutdown in Valley | | Ahmed Ali Fayyaz
BARAMULLA, May 13: Even as the peaceful Ladakh region recorded an impressive voter turnout, polling in the fifth and the final phase of Lok Sabha elections was also conducted in the north Kashmir constituency of Baramulla-Kupwara today amid near-total shutdown in Valley and sporadic incidents of clashes between anti-election demonstrators and paramilitary forces in Sopore, Baramulla and Srinagar. Authorities said that the turnout was a moderate 40% in Baramulla and a high 61% in Leh.
Barring three incidents of shootout at Seelu, Dooru (Sopore) and Khanyar (Srinagar), there was no major clash between Police/CRPF and the anti-election demonstrators on the day of final phase of polling in Kashmir valley today. While reports said that over 30 people, including 8 Police personnel, sustained injuries in at least seven clashes and a mob torched the vehicle of a sector magistrate, Officials maintained that only three persons had sustained gunshot wounds in two incidents of firing and all of them were stable at the hospital. Most of the Kashmiri separatist groups and militant outfits, including both factions of Hurriyat Conference, had called for total shutdown in Valley and complete boycott to the Indian Parliamentary elections.
After the polling ended at 1700 hours in all the five districts in the Lok Sabha constituencies of Baramulla-Kupwara and Leh-Kargil, Chief Electoral Officer, B R Sharma, revealed at a news conference in Srinagar that aggregate voter turnout of 42% had been recorded today in the fifth and the final phase of polling in Jammu & Kashmir. Making it clear that the final figures would be available only after a study of the Presiding Officers Diaries tomorrow, Mr Sharma said that in Baramulla constituency, Baramulla district had recorded turnout of around 30%, Kupwara 53% and Bandipore 42%. According to him, aggregate turnout in the constituency was around 40%. This was excluding 1,875 votes polled by the Kashmiri migrant community outside the Valley.
Sharma said that the aggregate turnout in the four segments in Leh and Kargil districts was around 61%.
Giving a segment-wise break-up, Sharma said that the turnout was 59% in Karnah, 50% in Kupwara, 44% in Lolab, 67% in Handwara, 43% in Langet (Kupwara district), 37% in Uri, 63% in Rafiabad, 12% in Sopore, 27% in Sangrama, 22% in Baramulla, 28% in Gulmarg, 29% in Pattan (Baramulla district), 50% in Gurez, 32% in Bandipore, 51% in Sumbal Sonawari (Bandipore district), 50% in Leh, 70% in Nobra (Leh district), 67% each in Kargil and Zanaskar (Kargil district).
According to CEO, Nobra had stood at number one with 70% while as Kargil, Zanaskar and Handwara had been the runners up with 67% in each segment. PDP candidate Dilawar Mir’s Rafiabad got the third highest position with an impressive turnout of 63%. On the other hand, separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani’s Sopore recorded the lowest voter turnout of 12%.
Polling was brisk for the whole day in Handwara which happens to be the home segment of the separatist-turned-mainstream politician and the Peoples Conference candidate, Sajjad Gani Lone, and the National Conference (NC) stalwart, Chowdhary Mohammad Ramzan. Second highest turnout in the Valley was recorded in Rafiabad segment where PDP’s candidate, Mohammad Dilawar Mir, and the NC MLA, Javed Dar, faced yet another test of their respective strength and influence. One-odd surprise in terms of turnout came from Uri which had recorded about 70% turnout in the recent Assembly elections. NC’s Mohammad Shafi Uri and Congress party’s winning candidate, Taj Mohiuddin, had got over 46,000 votes in that test of their strength. Uri today came up with a remarkably poor turnout of 37%.
Impact of the separatists’ call for boycott was remarkable in Sopore and Baramulla townships where few people came out to cast a vote. Official sources said that less than 100 votes were polled in most of the polling stations in the two major townships even. Turnout remained modest, between 22% and 29%, in the adjoining segments of Baramulla, Sangrama, Pattan and Gulmarg. It was, however, impressive in all three segments of Bandipore, Gurez and Sumbal in Bandipore district.
On a call separately issued by both factions of the separatist Hurriyat Conference as well as Mohammad Yasin Malik’s JKLF, there was near-total shutdown elsewhere in the Valley. Most of the business establishments, banks and even government offices remained closed and attendance was thin in the government offices that functioned in Srinagar and elsewhere. Commercial transport was almost fully off the road, though a number of private vehicles were seen in movement without facing any disturbance from Police, security forces and common people.
Situation was, however, that of a ghost town in downtown Srinagar where the separatist leadership enforced near-total shutdown and the authorities an undeclared curfew amid clashes between the two at a couple of places. At Khaleefapora in Khanyar area, CRPF opened fire when a mob of youth pelted stones on the retreating deployment and engaged them in a bitter clash. Two youth, namely Asif Ahmed Bhat S/o Mohammad Ramzan Bhat and Muneer Ahmed Rather, sustained gunshot wounds and were rushed to hospital. Officials, however, said that only one 20-year-old, Asif Ahmed Bhat, had sustained a minor gunshot injury while as Muneer had been discharged from a hospital in Rainawari.
Earlier today, another mob attacked a polling party in Syed Ali Shah Geelani’s home village of Dooru in Sopore when the EVMs were being carried to a destination at 1730 hours. Found cordoned by the mob, CRPF opened fire which left two youth injured. They were identified as Mufeed Ahmed Bhat and Tufail Ahmed Dar. Both were evacuated, rushed to Srinagar and admitted at SKIMS. Official sources said that head constable Mohammad Abdullah was hit in his eye when he was among five Police personnel subjected to heavy stone pelting by the mob before CRPF opened fire. He too was rushed to Srinagar and admitted to SKIMS. Unofficial reports, however, insisted that over 30 demonstrators sustained injuries in such clashes in Dooru, Seelu and Baramulla old town.
Sources said that earlier in the afternoon, another mob launched an attack on secotor magistrate Mohammad Maqbool Bhat whose Gypsy was torched at Seelu on Sopore-Kupwara Road, at the same place where Chief Minister Omar Abdullah had addressed a thick gathering the other day. Officials said that security forces came under a severe attack when a group of youth complained that they had been roughed up and their identity cards had been seized by some soldiers. Senior police officials rushed to the spot and claimed that the situation was brought under control.
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