Blast Kills 1 as Violence Marks Kashmir Voting

An election meant to prove that peace is returning to the northern Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir was instead a day of bombs, protests and separatist defiance Saturday.

A grenade explosion at a crowded polling station killed one person and injured 24 in the worst of a dozen attacks blamed on separatist militants, police said.

Six others were injured in other bomb and grenade attacks.

Militants who want independence for India’s only Muslim-majority state had threatened to kill anyone participating in the vote, the first for local government since a rebellion began in 1989.

Voting has been staggered across four regions of the state to allow security forces to cover different trouble spots.

Saturday’s voting, the third of the four stages, took place in and around the state capital, Srinagar.

Long a separatist stronghold, Srinagar could have been the most troublesome spot. But most of the city’s 900,000 residents remained in their homes all day, leaving the streets to thousands of soldiers.

Some residents said authorities forced them to vote.