Interim Report of the Third Phase
J&K Coalition of Civil Society
J&K State Assembly elections - 1st October 2002
As members of the Independent Observers Group, organized by the civil society coalition, we were to observe the conduct of the elections for the J&K State Legislative Assembly. The group's terms of reference were: -
1. Use of coercion (either to participate or abstain from elections)
2. Interaction with electorate to find out why they participated or abstained
In this endeavour we formed joint teams comprising of people from Jammu and Kashmir and different parts of India. The Civil Society Coalition sent four teams, which between them covered sixteen constituencies and around 100 polling booths in the districts of Pulwama and Anantnag. While our final report with complete documentary evidence would be made available after the completion of the elections, we are releasing an Interim Report of the Third Phase.
The Third Phase of the elections to the J&K assembly conducted on 1st October 2002 stands out for the spread and extent of violent coercion in most of the 16 constituencies of the two districts of Anantnag and Pulwama. Barring Tral town, where both the security forces and the militants were responsible for coercion and threat, in all other instances it was the Rashtriya Rifles (RR), which was accused by the people for coercing them to come out and vote. In most cases this was accompanied by physical and verbal abuse.
We cite some of the main instances to illustrate our observations (as per the teams which visited the constituencies):
Team I (Pulwama, Wachi, Shopian and Rajpora constituencies)
Gabarpura, Mughalpura and Kuchaypura (Rajpora constituency) - The team arrived in the area at 12:30 pm and spoke to many voters in the locality. Many were reluctant to speak to the team, fearing that the information and the identities might be passed on to the army. The fear of the armed forces was deep rooted and hence people refused to be identified. Complaints were being made that people (including minors) were forced to cast their vote. Women narrated the way they took shelter in the fields to escape being coerced to vote. Women were abused and a few complained of being beaten too. The Numberdar (village clerk) of the Kuchaypura village was also beaten by the army personnel.
Sugan (Wachi constituency) - The team reached Sugan at 4:35 pm. At the entry of the village, a detailed security check was conducted by the army on the team on the alleged threat of militants entering the village under the disguise of 'Press'. On entering the village, our vehicle was stopped by an agitated mob, who said that four boys (Mirajudin Lone s/o Ghulam Mohammed Lone, Zahoo Ahmed Ganai s/o Mohammed Afzal Ganai, Mohmed Iqbal Wani s/o Ghulam Mohideen and Basheer Ahmed Bhatt s/o Ghulam Mohammed Bhatt - all aged around 18) of the locality were picked up by RR- at 4:10 pm- after the voting had finished. Their alleged crime was that they had stolen the indelible ink to put the mark on their fingers- to give an impression that they have voted. No more evidence was required with regard to the extent of pressure and threat, which was put on people by the 'security forces'. Unfortunately the RR had not released these boys even at the time of our departure, and when we went back to speak to the RR personnel who had earlier checked the team, the latter were no where to be found.
Another shocking complaint the team came across was that of army personnel stripping themselves in front of womenfolk in the village to add insult to the intimidation - while the coercion spree was going on.
Team II (Noorabad, Kulgam, Homeshalibugh and Tral constituencies)
Tangmarg-Ahrbal (Noorabad Constituency)- Team II arrived at Tangmarg at around 2.50 pm. As we neared close to the polling booth we were stopped by a security force personnel who asked us to get out of the car so that it could be searched and we could be frisked. After showing our identity cards we were allowed to enter the polling booth. As we came out and were walking back to our vehicle, a crowd of people gathered around us requesting us to accompany them to their village nearby- to meet the family of a woman who died because of RR's harassment. We went there, against the "advice" of the BSF commander who warned that we were unsafe and that he could do nothing if anything went wrong. We went unheeding his advice and met the family. On 1st October at 8 am a RR personnel from Asnoor camp came to the village which was inhabited by the Gujjars and went from house-to-house asking people to cast their vote. When they protested that they would go and vote later, they were beaten and threatened. In the midst of this a scared Mir Jan Akhtar w/o Mir Hussain Paswal - age 38 collapsed and died of fright, leaving behind her husband and two daughters.
Just as we were leaving the village another crowd of people asked us to go visit the house of Manir Ahmad Paswal, age 22, s/o Alamdin Paswal was picked up by the RR at 12 noon of September 30. The RR accused him of having torn the posters of the candidates which were pasted on his house. They began to beat him then claimed to have "discovered" a gun lying outside his house in the front porch of the land. His house adjoins the polling booth. His wife, sister-in-law and mother were all beaten and we saw marks of injury on them.
At Bhugam where we reached around 10.40 am as soon as we got out of the car people came to us very agitated claiming that RR had coerced them into coming out to vote. According to them at 6.30 am and 7.30 am in three different locations of the small town namely Lonpora, Sheikhpora and Harpora announcements were made from the mosques. These were accompanied with threat. Several respondents said that people were told that "we are waiting till 10 am and if you do not come out we will see then". They were angry and just then the DSP arrived. Mr Ashok Kumar when confronted first claimed that he had received no such complaints. By then people came towards us and began telling him that that the RR from the Bolsu camp had been going round forcing people. We requested him to go speak to the RR officer and to tell him that security forces are neither to ask the people to vote or not to vote. This was not their task at all. He promised to go and speak to the concerned officer.
Team III (Pampore, Bijbehara, Pahalgam and Shangus constituencies)
Saraf Mohalla and Baba Mohalla (Bijbehara Town) - The home town of PDP President Mr. Mufti Mohammed Syed, was a case of large scale boycott, if not for the ugly instances involving RR personnel who went house to house ordering people to cast their votes. We found doors broken into and people's identity cards being taken away by the security forces. Many people complained (many of them requested not to be identified) that the army dragged them out of their houses so early that they did not even get time to wash their face. Later we found in Baba Mohalla that army had taken rounds in the villages in the night as well as in the morning. This was substantiated by the fact that while all the nearby polling stations had no votes cast at even 9:00 am, the Baba Mohalla Polling Booth No. 19 had as many as 84 out of 985 (all male) votes cast by 9:10 am.
Poshkandi (Bijbehara interior) - The team came across 'a large voter turnout' at Poshkandi, a remote village off the main road between Bijbehara and Pahalgam, only to realize soon that all the people who were standing in the long queue were doing it out of the orders given to them by the RR commander. People reported an announcement made by the army early in the morning, whereby a 'crackdown' was declared and all the people were asked to go at once to the polling booth. Feeling encouraged by the team's presence, even those people who were standing in the queue loudly started shouting against the army. The team tried to speak to the CRPF officer who was present on the occasion, but only to be turned down, even without identification.
Budroo (Pahalgam) - The Team came across two different incidents, one involving coercion by the armed forces (read RR) and another involving the rigging attempted by the National Conference (NC) workers. At one area, we came across a Maruti van, seized by the people from a group of NC workers, who had a "PRESS' sticker on the vehicle (No. JK-03 5592). According to the villagers, the NC workers were going from polling booth to polling booth casting votes. The vehicle and the driver were with the village Numberdar (village clerk) while the caught NC workers were handed over to the BSF camp nearby.
Another instance where all the people, including men and women, standing at the polling booth, complained about the army coercing them to vote and threatening them with serious consequences- in case they defy the order- was at the polling booth no. 47 of the Budroo-Chatrusu area. This was so much unlike the main Pahalgam town where peaceful and fair election (as far as any coercion was concerned) was taking place and by noon itself almost 30% of votes were cast.
Naugam and Shangus (Shangus constituency) - Naugam turned out to be a worst case of coercion by security forces, also as it falls right under the commanding area of Seven RR. What was more alarming was the number of people who had to cast their vote under duress (453 out of 979 votes at the Polling Booth No. 35, 391 out of the 1493 votes cast at P.B. No. 34-A - at 3:40 pm). Many men and women narrated incidents during the day when at different times, personnel of 7 RR took round in their village ordering them to go out and cast vote. One such unfortunate case happened to be an ailing woman aged 60, who out of fear, was brought to the polling booth- by her young daughter, but collapsed due to her illness. It was the JK Police personnel who then took her to the shade of a tree where she took rest.
Team IV (Anantnag, Devsar, Doru and Kokernag constituencies)
Achabal (Anantnag constitueny) - People of Chowk Shahibabad standing in long queue outside the polling station, (around 8:30 am), complained that they were driven to the polling booth by the RR force to vote, against their wishes. Peoples' Democratic Party (PDP) candidate of the constituency, Mohammed Hussain, complained about fraud voting by Burqa clad women. While the JK Police in-charge of the booth was enquired about the complaint, his reply was that there were no women police personnel around to verify the identity of the women voters.
Mohripura,Sagum (Kokernag constituency) - The team arrived at the area at 9:15 am to a large gathering at the polling station. But on being asked whether they were voting out of their free will, all the villagers said that they were forced by the army personnel to cast their vote. Wanting to hear the official version about coercion, we demanded a clarification from the RR officer who said that it was only for the safety of the villagers that they were being escorted to the polling station. The men and women around us shouted that the officer was lying. The team members pointed to the army officer that coercing people to cast their votes was against the guidelines issued by the election commission, and that the people should be allowed to go back if they did not want to vote. Encouraged by this, all the men and women left for their village.
Churat (Devsar constituency) - The team was told that there was a blank firing in the village during the early hours and were asked to cast their votes. The outcome was the number of votes polled at the Booth No. 13 of the area where 237 out of 1025 votes were cast by 1:00 pm.
Nadora (Doru constituency) - Army personnel were found taking rounds even in the paddy fields, forcing workers to go and cast their votes at 2:00 pm. The brave ones among the peasants came to the team only to say that under whatever circumstances they will not cast their votes.
Observations-The teams found that the strike call was total and complete throughout the valley and people in general boycotted the election.
Members of the team made it a point to find out from the people whether they were coerced by the security forces or threatened by the militants. Barring two places where people reported that the local commander of a militant outfit had issued posters that warned those casting their vote of dire consequence, we did not come across any other form of coercion by the militants. Strangely in Chandrigram people said unhesitatingly that they would have boycotted the polls anyhow and that this poster was redundant as far as they were concerned.
As far as instances of coercion are concerned, one of the issues raised in our earlier reports was with regard to the role played by the armed forces (primarily the Rashtriya Rifles), in forcing people to cast their votes. The question, which still remains unanswered, is whether there was any order from 'above' to officers at lower ranks to do the same. But the performance of these troops during the first three phases of election points not to any 'coincidence'.
In continuation of our previous interim reports, this time again we found people's response to the two questions; (1) whether elections would resolve the problem facing the people of J&K and (2) what they aspire for, the response was along the same lines that few if any saw the link between the elections with the main issue confronting them and what is needed is a permanent solution of the Kashmir issue.
Adv. Mir Hafizullah
(Gen.Secy, J&K CCS)
Phone: (0194)-456381Vijayan MJ
(Convener, CSI- India)
Ph: (011)- 6561743 / 651484