Poll violence in Kashmir Valley jolts Centre

New Delhi: Concerned over the violence and low turnout in the Srinagar byelection, the Union home ministry will soon have a discussusion with all stakeholders, including Election Commission and law ministry, to ensure that its security advice on holding elections in terror and Naxal infested areas is taken serious seriously to avoid such a situation in future.

The home ministry had earlier given a detailed note to the poll panel warning that bypolls in Srinagar and Anantnag should not be held now as the security situations was not conducive and could lead to further law and order issues in the already volatile Valley. Sources said that even the state government had endorsed home ministry’s warning but despite that the Election Commission decided to go ahead with the bypolls.

Eight people died in firing when mob tried to disrupt polling and only seven per cent turnout was reported for Srinagar, while elections for Anantnag were eventually cancelled. In fact, in re-polling ordered at 38 polling booths in Srinagar only two per cent turnout was reported on Thursday.

Sources said that though the government fully supports the autonomy of the Election Commission, there is a growing view, in wake of developments in Kashmir, that on security related issues it is the home ministry which should have the final say.

“Though Election Commission is an autonomous body and well within its rights to decide on the poll schedule but on sensitive and complex issues like holding elections in terror and Naxal infested areas they should go by the inputs provided by security agencies,’’ a senior government official said.

Sources said the bypolls had further vitiated the security atmosphere in the Valley more so after a video of some local youth heckling CRPF personnel deployed for election duties emerged on the social media.

Though CRPF personnel, senior security officials said, showed remarkable restraint and did not get provoked else it could have resulted in a major incident. “Our security personnel showed lot of maturity otherwise the situation could have deteriorated a lot. But such incidents are demoralising for our security forces who in any case are working in very tough environment,’’ the official added.

Taking a cue from these recent developments the home ministry also plans to put in place a mechanism to ensure that such incidents are not repeated in future. For instance, in the repolling at the 38-odd polling stations security was beefed up considerably with more than 300 personnel being deployed at every booth.