Indian Kashmiris vote in last round of bloody poll
( 2002-10-08 11:45 ) (7 )

Indian Kashmiris began voting on Tuesday in the final round of a bloodied state election India hopes will endorse the legitimacy of its rule in the disputed Himalayan region.

A trickle of voters filed into polling booths that opened at 7:00 a.m. (0130 GMT) in the mountainous and heavily forested Doda district, an Islamic separatist bastion under tight security after a violent campaign by militants to sabotage the election.

Some 90,000 security personnel were on duty in the district whose peaks and pine forests provide perfect cover for separatists fighting New Delhi's rule in the state at the centre of fears of war between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan.

Polling stations, due to close at 4:00 p.m. (1030 GMT), were heavily guarded by security men with machineguns at sandbagged posts. Some electoral officials wore bullet-proof vests and helmets.

More than 600 people, including a state minister and three dozen political workers, have been killed since August 2 when the election was announced.

The Muslim separatist guerrillas battling Indian rule in Kashmir since 1989 have condemned the state assembly election and moderate separatists are boycotting the voting that began on September 16.

The pro-Indian ruling National Conference party is expected to be returned, although its majority could be badly dented.

After past discredited elections undermined the central government's credibility, it hopes this poll will help legitimise its rule in the state, trigger of two of three wars with Pakistan.

Turnout in the first three rounds + accounting for 80 of the 87 state assembly seats + ranged between 42 and 47 percent.

That is below the 54 percent turnout in the last poll in 1996 and some analysts say it is neither strong enough to boost India nor weak enough to help Pakistan, which rules a third of Kashmir.

Pakistan has dismissed the election as a farce and says a UN-mandated plebiscite should be held in Kashmir to decide whether the territory should join Pakistan or remain with India.

SCATTERED VIOLENCE

Voters in seven constituencies, including that of the state law minister assassinated during the campaign, will cast their ballots in the fourth and final round of the election.

Result are expected by the end of the week.

At least 14 people were killed in scattered violence across Jammu and Kashmir state on Sunday and Monday, including in at least five areas voting on Tuesday.

An extra 40,000 security personnel have been brought into the state, already one of the most militarised regions in the world, for the election.

Suspected Islamic militants shot at election officials on the way to a polling station on Monday evening in Doda district, where six seats will be decided. A soldier escorting the officials was wounded, police said.

India accuses Pakistan of helping the Muslim guerrillas fighting Indian rule. Pakistan says it only offers political support to the Kashmiri people.

Indian and Pakistani forces have been confronting each other across their border since a bloody raid on the Indian parliament in New Delhi last December that India blamed on Pakistan-based Kashmiri militants.

The two countries conducted back-to-back nuclear tests in 1998 and have conducted regular missile tests since then.