Militants kill three in Indian Kashmir in vote warning

Police official says attackers belong to the local militant organisation Hizbul Mujahideen.

SRINAGAR: Militants killed two local officials and another man in Indian Kashmir before issuing a warning to Kashmiris against voting this week in the country's mammoth election, police and residents said Tuesday.

The militants targeted two village council heads in separate attacks late on Monday in Pulwana district south of the main city of Srinagar, a senior police officer said.

"Three people including two village heads were killed by local militants active in the area and the attack is aimed to keep the voters away from polling," Inspector General of Police AG Mir said.

"The attackers belong to the local militant organisation Hizbul Mujahideen, they were two in number and we have identified them," Mir told AFP.

Police were hunting for the attackers, who entered the home of one village head and shot him dead in Tral area of Pulwana district. They killed another senior village official and his 24-year-old son about an hour later in the same area.

Separatists have called for a boycott of the general election which ends next month when hardline Hindu nationalist Narendra Modi and his party are expected to vault to power after a decade of Congress-party rule.

Posters warning residents of punishment if they went to the polls appeared early Tuesday morning in the Tral area where the attacks happened, according to residents who have seen them.

Voting in India's only Muslim-majority state of Kashmir and Jammu is being staggered because of the tight security required. The Kashmir constituency which includes Pulwana district votes on Thursday.

The warnings, which say they are from the region's biggest rebel group, the Hizbul Mujahideen, were posted outside several mosques and in the main bazaar of Tral town.

"Be warned, voting for tyrants will entail punishment," the posters say.

The rebels say in the posters that they have been compelled to change their "freedom movement" strategy from "defensive" to "offensive" mode.

A local resident, who did not want to give his name, told AFP that "about four armed rebels appeared Sunday in the main bazaar of Tral threatening people to dissociate themselves from those fighting (in) the elections."

In a similar attack on April 17, a village council head was shot dead elsewhere in the Himalayan region, which is disputed between rival neighbours India and Pakistan.

A dozen rebel groups have been fighting for years for Indian Kashmir's independence or for merger of the territory with Pakistan. The fighting has left tens of thousands of people, mainly civilians, dead.

At least a dozen council members have been killed by suspected rebels since elections were held in 2010 for the region's "panchayat" or village councils.

Village heads have demanded the government provide security for the more than 30,000 local council members in the wake of Monday night's attacks.