Kunan-Poshpora villages: Women seek justice in different ways

Women in Kunan village of this district, where an army unit is alleged to be involved in mass rape in 1990, adopted two different approaches to the polling today as a group sat on protest seeking justice while a large number of the fairer sex exercised their democratic right.
Women also outnumbered men in casting votes in today's polling.
A group of 40 women, among the families of the victims, held a sit-in outside the polling booth 54-Kunan and blocked its entry.
Carrying black flags and raising slogans seeking justice, the women sat at the gate of the booth early morning and the voters had to use an alternate gate to enter the polling station to cast votes.

Polling had to be briefly halted in between as a pandemonium broke out when police asked the women to disperse.
Even as the protest continued, in an irony of sorts, the women of the village outnumbered the men in casting votes.

At around 2 pm, out of the total of 890 votes in the booth, as many as 390 votes had been polled.
The number of female votes, 215, was far greater than that of males - 175.
In the nearby Poshpora village, more than fifty per cent voters had cast ballots at a polling booth of a total of 800 votes.

494 votes had been polled till around 3:15 pm, with women outnumbering men by casting 280 votes.