- ANANTNAG/SRINAGAR, India (Reuters) - Eighteen people
died in the bloodiest polling day yet in Indian Kashmir as a third round
of elections were held in the troubled state.
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- Gunmen killed eight people on a bus on Tuesday, and six
troops died when their vehicle ran over a land mine, believed to be planted
by Islamic militants. Two militants, a political activist and an Indian
soldier died in separate incidents.
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- Despite the violence, India's independent election commission
said turnout was 41 percent, slightly lower than the 47 percent and 42
percent recorded in the first two rounds.
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- Turnout was swelled by heavy voting in Hindu-dominated
areas in the south of the state, while in the volatile separatist heartland
to the north, as few as 25 percent voted.
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- India sees the election, which ends on October 8, as
a means of enhancing the legitimacy of its rule in its only Muslim-majority
state and has hailed the good turnout as a victory of the bullet over the
ballot.
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- It has blamed Pakistan for a surge in separatist violence
which has killed more than 600 since the polls were called on August 2.
Islamabad denies encouraging the militancy and says it gives only moral
support to the Kashmiri "freedom struggle."
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- Just as polls opened, three suspected Islamic militants
wearing Indian police uniforms attacked a bus traveling from New Delhi
to the Himalayan region, riddling it with automatic fire as terrified passengers
huddled on the floor.
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- Passenger Bhushan Lal told Reuters victims were left
lying in pools of blood. Police said late on Tuesday that eight civilians
died -- raising the death toll from seven initially announced -- and nine
were injured.
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- "The fire was so heavy, everybody was screaming,
crying for help," said Wanchuk Norbu, a student who was also on the
bus.
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- Police said they killed one of the guerrillas and were
searching the area for the other two.
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- As polls closed, six paramilitary troops died when their
vehicle triggered a land mine explosion in Pulwama district in the Kashmir
Valley, the heartland of a separatist revolt which has killed at least
35,000 since it started 13 years ago.
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- A paramilitary spokesman said two men were also injured
in the blast in the volatile region, where Islamic militants, who have
vowed to derail the poll, frequently use land mines to attack their targets.
No further details were available.
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- MILITANTS "DESPERATE"
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- "After a very successful and violence-free poll
in the first and second phase, our friends across (in Pakistan) were desperate,"
Chief Electoral Officer Pramod Jain told reporters.
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- "Despite a very high level of security there have
been a series of incidents today in all districts that went to polls."
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- India sees the election as a test of a pledge made by
Pakistan earlier this year to stop Islamic militants infiltrating into
Indian Kashmir -- a commitment which helped avert a war in June between
the two nuclear-armed rivals.
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- It has blamed anti-poll violence for scaring away voters.
Pakistan has dismissed the election as a farce, while Kashmir's main separatist
groups have urged a boycott.
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- In the traditional centers of separatist support in the
Kashmir Valley, many voters stayed away, saying the poll was no solution
to the dispute over Kashmir's future.
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- "This election is a fraud, we want freedom,"
said Gul Mohammed Butt, who works in a garage in the town of Anantnag,
the main town in a district which had only 25 percent turnout.
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- The state's ruling National Conference party is expected
to retain power in an election boycotted by moderate separatists and being
fought mainly by pro-Indian parties and a few independents.
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- Villagers along the heavily guarded national highway
from Srinagar to Anantnag said they would not vote despite pressure.
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- "Security forces came in this morning and they asked
us to go and vote, we promised them we will go... but we are not going,"
said Farooq Ahmad, threshing rice on a farm by the roadside.
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- The army denied soldiers had ordered people to vote.
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- Police quickly broke up an anti-poll protest in Anantnag.
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- "We want freedom!" a small group chanted as
soldiers armed with automatic weapons patrolled the otherwise deserted
streets.
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- In Hindu-dominated areas in the Jammu region to the south,
people queued up to cast their votes. In the district of Kathua, where
the bus was attacked, turnout was the highest at 59 percent.
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- "The violence has become part of our life, but voting
is something that we have to do," farmer Randhir Singh said.
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- Suspected rebels attacked several polling stations with
grenades and automatic rifles in the Kashmir Valley, injuring almost a
dozen paramilitary soldiers.
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- A shadowy rebel group, Al-Arifeen, claimed responsibility
for at least a dozen attacks, without saying which ones, a local news agency
said. The group had also said it was behind the killing of the state law
minister last month.
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- Moderate separatists boycotting the poll say there can
be no substitute for a U.N.-mandated plebiscite to decide whether Kashmir
should stay with India or join Pakistan, and militants have vowed to target
anyone involved in the election.
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- The last of four rounds of voting will be next Tuesday
in another of the state's most dangerous areas. Counting is due to begin
for all regions on October 10.
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