Violence hits crucial India state elections

[Imran Khan]

Violence hits crucial India state electionssubmitted 11 hours 58 minutes ago
RAIPUR (Agencies) - Indian troops battled Maoist rebels in the east of the country Friday as violence marred the start of a crucial round of state elections seen as a popularity test for the ruling party.

The Maoist insurgents triggered landmine blasts and opened fire to scare away voters in Chhattisgarh state, killing a policeman and an air force official. Leftwing guerrillas fought more than two-dozen gunbattles, which left a trooper and police man dead. They also ran away with electronic voting machines from 21 poll centres, a police spokesman said.

Voting in some rural areas came to a halt, and armed rebels blocked roads and snatched electronic voting machines in the Bastar district of the state, a hotbed of Maoist activism, officials said. One policeman was killed and four others were wounded in two separate landmine blasts triggered by rebels in Bastar.

An Indian Air Force engineer Mustafa Ali was killed when Maoists fired on a low-flying helicopter over the insurgency-riven Jagdalpur district, a police official said.

“There also has been several cases of abductions of officials,” he said in state capital Raipur.

“The aim is create fear in the minds of people so that they will not come to vote,” said another police official, who asked not to be named.

Officials in Raipur said 40,000 police and soldiers guarded the polling stations.

India’s Election Commission in New Delhi said 55 per cent of the 6.3 million registered voters exercised their franchise in the first leg of the two-phase balloting in Chattisgarh.

Large parts of the densely-forested south of Chhattisgarh are under rebel control and around half the 8,879 booths were designated “sensitive” or “hyper-sensitive.”

Five more states - Madhya Pradesh in the centre, Occupied Kashmir, the capital Delhi, Mizoram in the northeast and the western state of Rajasthan - will vote before the end of the year.



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[su-47]

If the rebels are bold enough to block the roads, we should send the army out to confront them and kill them on the very roads they block.

I can't believe this kind of scum can exist in the world. They kill innocents and prevent people voting. It'll be a service to humanity if our army can kill each and every one of these festering rats.

 

[s90]

I hope in end everything is ok

 

[anand]

People ignore Naxals, 55% voting in phase I
15 Nov 2008, 0400 hrs IST, ET Bureau


NEW DELHI: Naxalites’ call for an election boycott in Chhattisgarh election seemed to have few takers with the first phase of voting, covering
the Maoist-infested constituencies, recording an impressive 55% voter turnout. However, some violence by Left-wing extremists did mar polling, killing 1 CRPF radio operator and injuring 4 other security personnel and a civilian.

With the turnout arrived at by the EC at the end of poll only a provisional figure, the actual polling may be higher than almost 2-3% once the final reports come in from the field. According to the EC, some of the polling parties had not returned by the time the 55% polling estimate was released. The real picture on the turnout as well as incidents would be available only after these polling parties reported back to Nirvachan Sadan.

Until 6.30 pm, reports with EC spoke of 20 incidents of poll disturbances, including snatching of EVMs at 12 places, and Naxalite attacks, both on polling stations as well as on security personnel escorting polling parties through Maoist-infested interiors of south Chhattisgarh. The CRPF radio operator was killed in sniper fire from Naxalites as he escorted a polling team back from a polling station in Dantewada.

Two SPOs and a district police jawan were injured in the same district in a pressure bomb attack while accompanying the polling parties to the polling stations in the morning. In Bijapur, another Maoist-hit district, the extremists attacked a polling station midway through a poll, injuring one Central security personnel. A similar attack was mounted by Naxalites at a polling booth in Narayanpur, injuring a civilian bystander.

The violence, however, does not seem to have dampened enthusiasm of voters who defied the Naxalite threat to come out and vote in huge numbers. This phase polling will decide the fate of chief minister Raman Singh from Rajnandgaon seat, opposition leader and Congress candidate Mahendra Karma from Dantewada and assembly speaker Premprakash Pandey from Bhilai.

Constituencies of cabinet ministers Ajay Chandrakar from Kurud, and Hemchand Yadav from Durg city besides Congress leader Motilal Vora’s son Arun Vora from Durg city and senior Congress leader Arvind Netam’s daughter Priti Netam from Kanker seat also saw polling on Friday. State’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party besides the Congress and the Bahujan Samaj Party have contested all the 39 seats in this phase.

People ignore Naxals, 55% voting in phase I - Politics/Nation-News-The Economic Times
Naxals have lost people support. They are nothing more than petty criminals, engaged in extorting money. Some of their top leaders have built huge properties, while common people in these areas are still very poor. This attitude of naxals have disillusioned masses.