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| Wednesday, 21 April 2004 |
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Kashmir rebels launch attacks as parliamentary elections get under way PATAN, India, Tuesday (AFP,Reuters) Two Indian security force members were killed and 18 other people injured in attacks in Kashmir by Muslim rebels opposed to the staging of India's parliamentary elections that began Tuesday, police said. A federal policeman was killed when militants attacked a voting booth at Rafiabad in northern Baramulla district soon after polls opened, police said. "There were no voters at the booth when the attack took place," a spokesman said. Around the same time, four policemen and three civilians were injured near a polling booth in the village of Sumblar, near Bandipora town, which is part of Baramulla district, police said. "Two of the injured civilians were polling staff," the spokesman said. Five security force personnel and five civilians were injured in an attack near a polling station in Sopore late Monday, police said. One of the injured security personnel died in hospital Tuesday. Also overnight, two BSF personnel were injured in a grenade attack near a polling station in Patan, 30 kilometers (18 miles) north of summer capital Srinagar, police said. Police in Baramula and Kupwara districts said nearly a dozen polling booths had been attacked overnight and Tuesday with grenades or gunfire. At Dangiwachi in Baramulla, an improvised explosive device was recovered inside a polling booth, delaying voting. Police defused the device. Meanwhile hundreds of Muslim families were Monday fleeing their homes in Hindu neighbourhoods ahead of voting for national elections in India's Gujarat state, where 2,000 people died in riots two years ago. They headed for homes of relatives in Muslim localities or to take shelter in public places such as railway stations and mosques despite the heavy deployment of security forces in the western state ahead of Tuesday's polls. "I do not want to take any chances as I have three daughters and a son. We have decided to spend two days at my brother's house," said Usnabanu Riyaz Ahmed, a resident of Ahmedabad's Jalampur Challi district. "If nothing happens, we will return back to our homes after the elections," she added. Another Muslim woman, Noorbibi Mohammad Hanif Ghanchi, who does not have any other relatives in Ahmedabad, said she and her family had decided to stay in a railway station or a mosque for one or two days during the poll period. "I am really scared of being here during the election. As it is, many of our names are not there on the voters' list. So we will not be voting Tuesday," said Ghanchi. Meanwhile the state's ruling Hindu nationalist BJP party spokesman Jaynarayan Vyas said omission of some names from the voters' list was not intentional but due to human error. "It is not uncommon that many persons, whether they are Hindus or Muslims, may not have their names on the voters' list," he added. Vyas said Muslims had nothing to fear during the elections. At least 2,000 people, mostly Muslims, were killed in the Gujarat riots which erupted after an alleged Muslim mob torched a train burning 59 Hindus alive. Many Muslims have still not returned to their homes as they fear being attacked by Hindus fundamentalists, who had participated in the riots. |
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