E-Paper
Residents of Kargil vote without fear
The electorate of Ladakh for the first time in 15 years, exercised their franchise without the fear of cross-border shelling on Monday.
Although voter turnout in this area had always been very high, the electorate of Ladakh Lok Sabha constituency on Monday, for the first time in 15 years, exercised their franchise without the fear of cross-border shelling looming over their heads.
Eighty-year-old Ghulam Hassan Khan said his memory failed him in recalling the last time when he cast his vote without thinking about the Pakistani shells which used to land in his village every third day on an average.
Life has been peaceful in Kargil since the ceasefire between India and Pakistan announced on November 26 last.
"This time we are not afraid of the shells that had nearly ruined everything here," Khan said after casting his vote in the town area at the polling station set up only for males.
Abdul Rashid, a retired government employee, said people of Kargil had grown used to living in peace for the past six months but they were little skeptic about the outcome of the peace process between New Delhi and Islamabad.
"Sometimes, it seems that the bad days are over for Kargil which has born the brunt of cross-border shelling for the last 15 years but when we think about the fate of past peace process between the two countries, pessimism takes over from optimism," Rashid said, adding Kargiliites were praying for permanent peace between the two countries.
In the nearby polling station meant only for women, the polling was higher than that in the the booth for men. Female voters were more enthusistic than men in participating in the democratic process.
Fatima Bibi, 50, refused to be turned away by the polling agent of one of the candidates on the pretext that her vote has already been cast.
"How can my vote be polled when I was at home. If someone has cast vote in my name, it is the mistake of the polling agents and I will not forgo my right to choose my representative in Parliament," she said.
Women folk were seen jostling and pushing each other in the serpentine queues to make way to the polling station for casting their votes.
Many a women had brought their children along to the polling booths.
"This could not be imagined a few months back. Going out of the safe house (shelters) was undertaken only when absolutely necessary and once the job was done, everybody would rush back to safety," Jahana Bibi, who had come along with her daughter and daughter-in-law to cast vote, said.
The female voters in Kargil district, which has two assembly segments, outnumber their male counterparts by over 4,000.
Nearly 90,000 people from Kargil are eleigible to vote.
