Militants raid Doda polling station, 3 killed

DODA: The day began on an ominous noteat the district headquarter in Doda town as militant blasted explosives andfired indiscriminately. Two CRPF jawans and one militant were killed in theencounter that followed.The attack took place at around 7.20 am, soonafter the commencement of polling for the fourth and final phase of the Jammuand Kashmir Assembly elections.Several bullet proof vehicles of the statepolice, CRPF and BSF personnel were immediately rushed to the site of explosionwhere a fierce encounter took place. One militant and two CRPF jawan were killed in theencounter while three CRPF jawans were injured. The killed militant has beenidentified as Tariq of Gandoh area. The state of the injured are not known sofar. It is believed that there were two militants and one of them was able toescape.The place where the encounter took place was barely 200 metres awayfrom the only hotel in the town where media people from all over the world arecamping for covering the Doda elections. Militants had planned to attackthe Town Hall polling station. Voting has been disrupted in the two pollingstations in the area. Muhammad Ashraf Mughal, the zonal magistrate, said thepolling would restart in the Town Hall polling station soon.An AK-47riffle and heavy amount of ammunition and grenades were seized from the killedmilitants which indicate that the militants were planning major strikes in Doda.The militants were in police uniform.The entire area has been cordoned offand more bullet proof vehicles were pressed into service.Meanwhile,polling began on Tuesday for the fourth and final phase of Jammu and KashmirAssembly elections in six constituencies of Doda district on a low note, partlydue to the early morning chill and partly due to the fear of militants. Nountoward incident has been reported from other areas of thedistrict.Voting also began in Lolab constituency of Kupwara district wherepolling orginally was scheduled in the first round on September 16 but wascountermanded following the assassination of Law Minister and NationalConference candidate, Mushtaq Ahmed Lone on September 11.An estimated 4.84lakh voters are expected to exercise their right of franchise to choose theirrepresentatives from 56 candidates including Minister of State for Home KhalidNajeeb Suhrawardy, state chiefs of BJP and BSP, Daya Kishan Kotwal and SheikhAbdul Rehman respectively, former Minister and PCC chief Ghulam Nabi Azad''s kinMohammad Sharief Niyaz and former Advocate General Mohammad AslamGoni In another attack,militants detonated an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) in Banihal constituencyof Doda district.The device exploded about 50 metres away from the pollingbooth in Sumber area of Banihal, official sources said here.However, therewas no loss of life or injury to anyone in the explosion. The blast wascaused with a purpose to scare the voters, officials said. Polling resumed aftersome time.  Strike affects life in Kashmir Valley  Kashmir panel briefs US ambassador J&K polls: Full coverage