TASIM ZAHID

Tral (South Kashmir), Dec 13: Repeating what was a norm in 1996 elections, and to a great extent in 2002 polls, too, the Rashtriya Rifles soldiers forced people to vote in Kuchmulla and Dadsar villages in Tral constituency on Saturday.

This reporter saw the soldiers of 42 battalion of RR enter houses in these villages and herd people to voting stations when the polling was nearing end this evening. They even lined up minors for voting.
The presiding officer hurriedly distributed blank slips among the coerced voters outside the polling booth and wrote their electoral numbers on them.

The people of these villages said the soldiers had visited their houses early in the morning

“They told us that they will monitor the situation up to 2 PM and if the voting is low we will have to bear the consequences,” a group of villagers told Greater Kashmir, wishing anonymity for fear of reprisals.

Another resident, who refused to give his name, said, “The RR said that they will cut the fingers of those people who do not have indelible ink mark on the fingers. They are all around us, what can we do but vote.”

The residents said the soldiers had also gone to a neighboring village, Nadargam, in the morning and herded the voters to the polling station. “They asked the village elders to ensure the presence of the all the voters in polling station,” they said.

The Kuchmulla polling booth had seen very slow polling in the morning with only 2 votes being polled in the first hour and 10 votes in the second hour. Then in third hour the voting jumped to 70 votes and finally up to 92 votes in the fourth hour.  And by 3.30 PM the 338 out of total 1161 votes were polled. Even then soldiers were queuing up the men and women outside the polling station.

In Dadsar, the villagers alleged that the RR had entered many homes especially those of the former militants, asking them to vote. “They entered the homes and ransacked them and threatened the inmates of dire consequences if they did not vote,” a group of villagers said.
In the three polling stations of Dadsar’s--- 62-B, 46-D, 63-C--- 398 out of total 2071 votes had been polled at the end of polling time.
The chief election commissioner of India had said that army would have no role in the elections.

In Uri police filed a case against army when soldiers fired at a rally of National Conference in the election campaigning season.

[Greater Kashmir]
 

Posted on 15 Dec 2008 by Webmaster