Boston Globe
By Tim Sullivan
KUPWARA, India - Voters in Kashmir defied threats by Muslim militants and turned out in greater numbers than expected yesterday for state elections in Indian-controlled Kashmir, electoral officials said.
Although one youth was killed and there were scattered acts of violence, the separatists failed to significantly disrupt the voting.
Kashmir, a flash point between India and Pakistan for five decades, had been the site of increasingly bloody attacks in recent weeks, with militants opposed to the election - and in favor of independence or union with Pakistan - escalating their campaigns.
The militants have threatened to kill anyone who participates in the vote, which will be held over four days stretching into October. No results are expected to be made public until Oct. 12.
The relatively high turnout could partly be in response to separatists who ran as independent candidates.
Although the state's largest separatist alliance called for an election boycott, the independent candidates said voting was necessary to drive the ruling National Conference Party from power.
''The locals found saviors in these independent candidates because they want someone to save them from the oppression of the government and the security forces,'' said independent candidate Abdul Haq Khan.
Many voters agreed. ''The ruling party has done nothing for us,'' said Abdul Khaliq Malik, a civil servant. ''Whatever they get they kept in their pockets.''
He said he voted and the militant threats did not frighten him: ''This is our freedom, to choose who we want, so why should we be scared?''
Kashmir's main separatist alliance claimed many voters were forced to cast ballots. ''The army security forces and police entered into villages and coerced people to vote,'' said Abdul Ghani Bhat, chairman of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference.
''We are scared, but if we don't come out the army will force us,'' said Ghulam Qadir Malik, a 65-year-old farmer. ''In the morning, the army searched our house and told us to vote.''
He said that in 1996, soldiers came to the town and beat those who did not vote. Despite tight security, a 16-year-old boy was killed and voting was briefly disrupted by a rocket fired at a polling booth in the village of Seri Khwaja.
An Indian Army spokesman said five militants were killed yesterday in a clash with soldiers. The army said the guerrillas belonged to the Pakistan-based group Lashkar-e-Tayyaba.
Few voters turned out in the town of Baramula, near Srinagar. ''I don't see the possibility of many people voting here,'' said Farooq Ahmad, a vegetable seller, peering out his door on a desolate street. People are afraid, he said.
Nearly all shops and businesses remained closed in the Kashmir Valley in response to a call for a strike by the Hurriyat Conference.
More than 60,000 people have been killed in fighting between the government and insurgents in Kashmir since 1989. The Himalayan enclave is divided between India and Pakistan, nuclear-armed rivals that have twice gone to war over the region.
India says Pakistan is trying to sabotage the elections by sending Islamic militants to stage terror attacks. Pakistan said yesterday the elections were a sham.