People side with separatists, stay away from polls
It was more of a battle between tear smoke canisters and stones than contest for ballot in Palhallan area as paramilitary forces and police had a tough time to disperse the anti-poll protests throughout the day.
Situated along the Srinagar-Baramulla highway, Palhallan is considered to be a volatile area known for its pro-freedom stance. A large contingent of Army, paramilitary forces and police had covered all roads and lanes leading to a polling station here. For “security reasons”, six polling stations were merged and set-up in a single polling station at Government Higher Secondary School here.
Amid stone pelting on the fortified polling booth, just six votes were polled. Each polling booth has around thousand votes. Witnesses said as the elections started at 8 a.m, several groups of youth attacked the polling booth by pelting stones, however troopers and cops swung into action and fired several teargas canisters to disperse them.
“We had a tough time today to control the violent group of youth. Despite challenging situation, we exercised restraint and used only tear smoke canisters to avoid any casualties,” said a police officer deputed at the polling booth.
The protesters regrouped and fought pitched battle with police.
Fear was palpable on faces of the polling staff as stones rained on the booth. “It is like a nightmare to discharge our duties in this situation,” said an official on polling duty. Out of over 1142 votes, just five have been polled at booth number six in Palhallan and one at Raipora B. Four other polling stations were yet to open their account till 3.45 pm.
Palhallan was at the forefront of protests against the civilian killings in 2010 summer unrest and hanging of Muhammad Afzal Guru last year. “Youth here were implicated in frivolous cases to mar their career. Due to continuous harassment by security agencies, many local youth were forced to join the ranks of militants and got killed in encounters. People of Palhallan have rendered unflinching sacrifices for the Kashmir movement. Boycotting elections has become part of our struggle,” said a group of local youth.
