Turnout crucial in J&K election

JAMMU: The first state off the block for the election sweepstakes is Jammu and Kashmir. Chief minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed began his election-related rallies a month ago, just about the time that the principal secessionist leader, Syed Ali Shah Geelani, began his boycott-election campaign.
This is but a slice of the many-layered reality of Kashmir.Sample the others: Ten days ago, Mufti addressed a 15,000-strong rally in Sopore, the heartland of secessionist sentiment.
Last week, Geelani gathered a similar sized crowd at Kulgam for the funeral of a Hizbul Mujahideen district commander Abdul Majeed Wani aka Arif Khan who was gunned down by the security forces.
In 2002, some one-fifth of the people of the Kashmir region or one-tenth of the entire state, boycotted the assembly elections. But, by the same measure, many more participated.
Separatists in the state now have to contend with the possibility that Pakistan may not allow any replenishment, reinforcement or rotation of militants in the Valley across the Line of Control.
Over time, and this could be a matter of months, the militant groups in the Valley, be they Kashmiri or Pakistani, will have no fighting capacity left.
In these circumstances, there appears to have been a change of tactics. This has been manifested by the civil protests against alleged human rights violations in the Valley.
It began with a February 9 incident when five porters died when a terrorist assumed dead by the Army opened up with a light machine gun.
Three army personnel also died in the incident. But the locals claimed that the army had used them as human shields. The situation in the area has remained tense since then.
In another unrelated incident, a person was shot dead by the police to disperse a violent mob that grew out of a minor quarrel.
Every day, the security forces conduct hundreds of raids looking for terrorists. Undoubtedly in some cases, there is high-handedness and in a few, there is use of excessive force.
There is no excuse for the custodians of the law to break it and the government is only now realising how important it is to ensure that the security forces operate in a zero-error regime.
But this is easier said than done. The kind of training and forces needed for the job don''t exist.