Indian Kashmir residents vote in state elections

Srinagar: Indian Kashmir residents began voting in state elections on Monday amid appeals for a poll boycott by Muslim separatists who have spearheaded a wave of massive pro-freedom protests.

The elections come after some of the worst protests against Indian rule in the country's only Muslim majority
state.

Voter turnout was low early Monday. Paramilitary soldiers and police officers outnumbered voters as polls opened in towns north of Srinagar.

More than 30 separatist leaders who called for a poll boycott have been detained in recent days under a law that
allows police to hold people for up to two years without trial.