Large crowds voted in some towns in Indian Kashmir on Monday while protesters clashed with police in others as state elections began amid boycott calls by separatists. The elections - to be held in phases over more than a month in an attempt to avert violence- come after some of the worst protests against Indian rule in the country's only Muslim-majority state and a crackdown on separatist leaders who oppose the polls. “You can't have free and fair elections in the presence of hundreds of thousands” of occupying forces, said Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, a key separatist leader who has been under house arrest for three days. Separatists say the elections will only entrench New Delhi's hold on the troubled Himalayan region. Anti-India sentiment runs deep in Kashmir, where most people favor independence from India or a merger with Pakistan. The region is divided between the two countries and both claim it in its entirety. Despite the boycott call, long lines of voters stretched around polling booths in several towns north of the capital of Srinagar. Guraz district had the heaviest early turnout with more than 25 percent of eligible voters casting their ballots by noon, said B.R. Sharma, the state's chief electoral officer. But in many areas, turnout was so low that paramilitary soldiers and police outnumbered voters. In Bandipore, a town 40 miles north of Srinagar, police fired tear gas at dozens of protesters chanting “No election, no selection, we want freedom,” local police official Mohammed Yousuf said. Two people were detained and one was injured, he said. In Baharpora, 20 miles north of Srinagar, more than two dozen men who refused to vote gathered outside the polling booths. “We will not barter the martyrs' blood for the vote,” said Bashir Ahmed, 22, a taxi driver. “Those who vote are traitors.”
