Islamic rebels assaulted a heavily guarded polling station today in a bloody finale to Indian Kashmir's violent four-phase assembly elections.
Officials said up to 46 per cent of eligible voters turned out. Indian officials have already called the election a success and a thumb in the eye of Pakistan, which has dismissed the vote as a "sham".
At least 830 people have died since August 2nd, when India announced the vote would be held. The election was boycotted by Muslim separatists.
Some 80,000 security personnel were deployed for the final round of voting in the rebel stronghold of Doda, a mountainous and forested southeastern district.
Just after voting opened at Doda's town hall this morning, two militants disguised as policemen opened fire and lobbed grenades on the heavily armed security forces. Two policemen died in the attack and two were injured, along with a civilian and one of the militants, police said.
In other election violence, six people were injured in an explosion at Banihal on a bus carrying poll officers back from their stations, police said. The Indian army also said it shot dead five rebels overnight after they entered from the Pakistani zone of Kashmir.
India has demanded an end to rebel infiltration in Kashmir before easing a 10-month standoff that has brought hundreds of thousands of troops to the nuclear powers' borders.
Pakistan says there is at most minimal movement of rebels on the de facto Kashmir border. It has dismissed the assembly election, calling instead for a referendum on Kashmir's fate.
AFP