SRINAGAR – Security forces shut down roads and stepped up patrols Wednesdayin the restive Indian state of Kashmir, a day before voters in the regiongo to the polls.
Tens of thousands of security forces have poured into the state ahead ofThursday’s vote, which is the second phase of India’s massive elections.
Tensions have skyrocketed in Kashmir since a February suicide attack thatkilled 40 Indian paramilitaries and led to India and Pakistan exchangingcross-border strikes.
The two countries, which both control part of divided Kashmir, brieflyappeared on the brink of war after the exchange of fire, though a moreserious clash was averted.
But Indian authorities are taking no chances during voting, deploying tensof thousands of security forces to the state to join the half a millionsoldiers already stationed there.
“We have made elaborate security arrangements for peaceful polling,” SwayamPrakash Pani, inspector general of the local police force, told AFP.
All civilian vehicles have been banned from the city’s main boulevard,which leads to a poll material distribution centre.
Across the city, police and paramilitary troops in combat fatigues andwielding automatic rifles have been deployed, including along the banks ofthe Jhelum river that winds through Srinagar.
Barbed wire barricades have been erected and police have issued trafficadvisories asking residents to avoid parts of the city.
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Many residents have simply opted to stay home, with the traffic in the citydominated by troops and polling staff moving in military vehicles.
A local private transport operator said the government had hired more than3,000 vehicles to ferry polling officials around parts of the state duringthe vote.
Security measures taken after the February attack have stirred someresentment, in particular new restrictions on a 200-kilometre stretch ofkey highway that runs north-south in the state.
After the attack, the stretch of road was ordered closed every Sunday andWednesday while government forces move along it.
Earlier this month, a patient died inside an ambulance that was forced tostop on the highway as a police convoy moved along it.
On Wednesday, authorities briefly lifted the restrictions, but they areotherwise expected to remain in place until the elections are over. -APP/AFP