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Terrorists manage to influence 11th phase of Panchayat polls | Only 28 percent polling in block Zengir of Sopore | | EARLY TIMES REPORT JAMMU, May 26: Even as first ten phases of ongoing Panchayat polls witnessed large turnouts of voters despite boycott calls and terrorists’ threats, the eleventh phase, however, experienced a low turnout in some pockets of district Sopore in Kashmir valley as the militants finally managed to coerce people for staying away from the election process. Sopore district is considered to be the strong hold of the various terror outfits active in Valley and it is once again proved that their presence here had a significant bearing on the final poll outcome. The impact of the terrorists’ threats and boycott calls could be gauged from the fact that only 28 percent voters cast their votes in block Zengir of district Sopore. This is by far the lowest turnout in all the eleven phases of current Panchayat elections. Sopore’s Zengir block had 38 panchayat constituencies which went to polls on May 25 in the eleventh phase of the 16-phased Panchayat elections. The low percentage of voters in this particular block has led to the defeat of two Sarpanch nominees, who braved the bullets of militants and put their life at risk just for the sake of contesting the elections and be part of the democratic process. Early this month the terrorists had fired upon Abdul Rashid War, who was contesting for Sarpanch from Warpora Panchayat. Even though War was hit by militants’ bullets and got injured, he went on fighting elections but he lost due to less number of votes polled. Similarly, Mohammad Maqbool, a Sarpanch candidate from Wadoora Panchayat received bullet injuries on his legs a few days back for participating in the poll process and defying the dictates of terrorists. Due to the fear psychosis, most of Maqbool’s supporters remained indoors on the polling day which ultimately proved costly for him as he lost. However, his opponent Irshad Ahmad persuaded upon his backers to take part in the polling and managed to get their ballots though not in huge numbers just before the polling deadline. The pace of the voting in this entire block was so slow that by 12 noon, only 7 percent had cast their votes and most of the voters marked their ballots in last half an hour. Almost similar scenes were witnessed in Saidpora panchayat of block Zengir as here also the supporters of poll boycott callers made futile attempts to intimidate the people to use their right to franchise. Here, the poll boycotters pelted stones on the polling stations in a bid to disrupt the election process, however, the alert security forces foiled such attempts and brought the situation under control by dispersing the unruly mob by using mild force. The situation in hard core separatist leader and Chairman Hurriyat Conference-Geelani faction, Syed Ali Shah Geelani’s native Dooru Panchayat was much more pitiable since this constituency could not elect a sarpanch or panch since no one filed nominations for the same due to the fear of militant attacks. In the absence of any nominee, no one from this panchayat cast their votes.
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