THE Indian Prime Minister, Mr Narasimha Rao, yesterday told an election rally in the northern, disputed state of Jammu and Kashmir that he did not rule out "more mischief" by Pakistan in disrupting parliamentary polls in the state tomorrow.
Winding up his Congress party's election campaign amidst heavy security in the state's winter capital of Jammu, Mr Rao said elections were the only way to restore normality in the state, racked by over six years of separatist violence in which over 13,000 people had died.
India accuses Pakistan, which forcibly occupied a third of Kashmir and lays claim to the rest, of arming and training Kashmiri separatists. India denies this.
"Nobody has gained anything, from militancy and the people will realise it if they look back," said Mr Rao, the first prime minister to visit India's only Muslim majority state in eight years.
He said Kashmir's special status under the Indian constitution would remain unchanged but elections would give Kashmiris a voice in parliament.
Elections to Kashmir's six Lok Sabha (lower house) seats were last held in 1989 but not two years later when general elections took place again. Islamic Kashmiri separatist groups are boycotting the elections and have vowed to disrupt them in the Kashmir valley which votes at the end of the month.
The All Party Huriyat Conference, representing some 30 Kashmiri social groups and political parties is demanding a UN supervised plebiscite for Kashmir's self determination which India promised 49 years ago. They want to unite the erstwhile, princely state of Kashmir ruled by a Hindu maharaja before Pathans from Pakistan's North West Frontier raided the state in October 1947.
Indian security officials fear the boycott might lead to bloodshed and have deployed about 100,000 para military personnel across three "sensitive" constituencies in the valley to reassure people not to vote with their feet. This is in addition to some 175,000 army, and paramilitary men already deployed on internal security duty against armed insurgents since 1989.
And, though the government recently held talks with four separatist leaders on ending Kashmir's armed struggle, officials admit organising elections in the insurgency ridden state wilt not be easy. Federal officials worried about low voter turn out said they would be "satisfied" even if it dropped to 20 per cent.
