India deploys troops in Kashmir

Srinagar: India deployed thousands of troops in Kashmir's main city on Friday and erected barricades in what amounted to an undeclared curfew to thwart planned protests against ongoing state elections.

Police and soldiers in riot gear patrolled deserted streets, littered with dry brown leaves, in Srinagar, the capital of the Kashmir Valley, and warned residents to stay indoors.

"We are sick and tired of this, every second day they impose curfew," said 27-year-old bank employee, Tania Khan. "Life is miserable here."

Life in Srinagar has been frequently disrupted by strikes, demonstrations and curfews, especially since some of the biggest anti-India protests in years erupted several months ago. At least 42 people were killed by security forces during those protests.

Separatists had planned more protests yesterday to renew their appeal for a boycott of the seven-stage vote.

Second phase

The authorities, buoyed by a decent turnout in the first round of the vote, blocked the move. Many separatist leaders remain in jail or under house arrest.

The second phase of polls is due tomorrow, and Srinagar will vote in the final phase. It will be the third vote in the state since an insurgency began in 1989, killing at least 43,000 people.

"We appeal to people to stage peaceful protests against holding of elections in presence of 700,000 troops and against arrest of leaders," said a statement of the Jammu and Kashmir Coordination Committee, a new alliance of Muslim separatists, business people and lawyers.

Shops, businesses and schools were also closed in other towns across the Kashmir Valley.

In the past, separatist guerrillas have attacked and killed scores of candidates and political workers, vandalised polling stations and attacked rallies to thwart elections.

But early this year, the United Jihad Council, a Pakistan-based militant alliance fighting Indian troops in Kashmir, rejected the use of violence to enforce a boycott.

Violence has declined significantly after India and Pakistan, which both claim the region in full and rule in part, began a slow-moving peace process in 2004.