E-Paper
20 die as naxals, ultras disrupt polls
Twenty people ? including six security personnel and seven guerrillas ? were killed and 18 injured in mostly naxalite and militant violence in Manipur, Jharkhand, J&K, Bihar, Chhattisgarh and Mizoram.
Twenty people — including six security personnel and seven guerrillas — were killed and 18 injured in mostly naxalite and militant violence in Manipur, Jharkhand, J&K, Bihar, Chhattisgarh and Mizoram. However, the toll was lower than that of the first round of voting in the 1999 Lok Sabha elections in which 35 people were killed.
National Conference president Omar Abdullah escaped unhurt when a mine exploded minutes after his cavalcade passed in J&K’s Badgam district.
Militants targeted 11 polling stations, hurling grenades and opening fire at them, killing two security personnel and injuring several others in the Baramulla Lok Sabha constituency of Kashmir. As polling began, militants triggered a landmine blast on the Bandipora-Sumblar road, critically injuring a policeman and three people on poll duty.
Maoist Communist Centre guerrillas shot dead magistrate Ajay Kumar who was on poll duty in Dhanbad. Several policemen were injured in the attack.
External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha's motorcade was attacked by a stone-pelting mob in Hazaribag in Jharkhand. Naxalites drove away polling officials in three booths in the state while a guerrilla was killed and two polling staff and a CRPF personnel injured in an encounter in Chatra district.
In Manipur, which was reeling under a bandh, four paramilitary personnel on poll duty were killed and three others injured when militants attacked them.
In Bihar, two RJD supporters were killed and four persons were injured in an encounter, bomb explosions and shootouts.
Four paramilitary personnel were injured in a landmine blast in Bastar, Chhattisgarh, where naxalites looted EVMs — leading to suspension of voting — and exchanged fire with security personnel at 14 places.
In the 1999 polls, over 100 people had died. With the second phase of polls due in both troubled Bihar and Jharkhand, and with UP awaiting polls, the toll may yet rise.
