Voting ends peacefully in Kashmir

Barring stray incidents, voting ended peacefully in all the 16 assembly constituencies that went to polls Tuesday in Kashmir.

A senior Election Commission official told IANS in Srinagar that voting ended without any major incident of violence at all the 1,781 polling stations in the 16 constituencies of Baramulla, Badgam and Pulwama districts in the Kashmir Valley.

As many as 138 candidates, including Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, senior ministers Abdul Rahim Rather, Ghulam Hassan Mir and Taj Mohiuddin, are in the fray Tuesday.

Tight security arrangements were made in the aftermath of Dec 5 terror attacks in the valley, in which 21 people were killed.

Braving terror threats, separatists' poll boycott call and winter chill, voters came out in large numbers to exercise their franchise at almost all polling stations. Only in the traditional strongholds of the separatists like Sopore in Baramulla and Tral in Pulwama was the polling low.

Balloting ended at 4 p.m.