Sopore town sides with boycott

Abdur Rashid, the presiding officer at a polling booth in this north Kashmir town, had always seen long queues of voters elsewhere. But on Tuesday, the situation for him was completely different, and surprising as well.
Rashid, who had earlier discharged poll-related duties in various capacities, was visibly nervous. The cause of anxiety was not the low turnout but his deployment in the volatile Sopore town, which has been a stronghold of separatist leaders, particularly Syed Ali Geelani, over the years.
“From 1996, I have been engaged in poll duties in areas like Tangmarg and Uri where people would turn up in large numbers to vote. But today I hardly see anyone casting his vote here,” he told Greater Kashmir.
At the booth, housed in Government Degree College Boys Sopore—where Rashid was discharging his duties—only three votes out of 519 were polled till 11:30 am.
Unlike surging queues of voters in other parts of the Valley, this north Kashmir town largely sided with the separatists’ poll boycott call. The minuscule population of town that cast their vote, according to locals, did so because of independent candidate Irshad Rasool Kar. Irshad is son of Congress leader Ghulam Rasool Kar.
The scene at other three adjoining polling stations, located in the college, was no different. Three, 15 and nine votes were polled at these booths by 11.30 am.
At polling booths clustered at nearby Government Girls Higher Secondary School, even main contenders couldn’t arrange polling agents. “I have come from Kawoosa Beerwah to act as poling agent for Abdur Rashid Dar of Congress,” said Ashiq Hussain Ganaie, at booth number 86.
Outside, the town wore a deserted look. Zooming armored vehicles and men-in-uniform was a common sight after every 20-meters.
Even before 1989, when the armed conflict broke out in Kashmir, the separatist sentiment was running high here.
When Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah dissolved the Plebiscite Front and revived the National Conference in 1975, it was none other than Sofi Muhammad Akbar who took on him.
During the heydays of armed militancy, the town was out of bounds for Army. It was in November 1993, the Army entered into the town after a deadly gunfight with militants for days together.
In 2008 and 2010, the town was again the epicenter of pro-freedom protests and even historic Muzaffarabad march started from here.
Today, some people who turned up to vote here came up with long arguments to justify their act. “We are voting for development of town. Our vote is not against Tehreek (movement),” said Nazir Ahmad, a local.
At Muslim Peer-Kralteng area, the anger against poll process was visible among locals.
“Why should we cast the so-called vote? It would be betrayal with the blood of martyrs. Those who are casting vote are Gaddars (traitors),” said Irfan Ahmad, a local. “How can we forget the Sopore massacre of 1993 in which 50 people were killed by government?”