Defying the poll boycott call of the top separatists and attempts of terrorist outfits to create fear among the electorate, a large number of people turned out on Thursday to cast their vote in North Kashmir’s Baramulla Lok Sabha constituency where long queues of voters were witnessed in almost every segment from early in the morning.

Separatists Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Yasin Malik had on Wednesday evening called for the boycott of polls. However, the electorate appears to have snubbed them by turning out in strength to cast their vote.

People were seen dancing and singing while waiting for their turn to cast the vote and no fear of separatists or terrorists was visible in their eyes. Polling was held for the Jammu and Baramulla Lok Sabha seats in the first of the 5-phase polling in Jammu and Kashmir.

Polling till noon was highest, 50.24%, in Baramulla’s Uri town along the Line of Control (LoC) which had witnessed the worst terrorist attack at an Army camp in 2016 when 19 soldiers were killed. Separatist leader Geelani’s hometown of Sopore registered 3.02% polling till noon.

Stray incidents of violence were reported in Pattan where a woman was injured in stone-pelting and certain other areas where supporters of separatists tried to stop people from going to the polling booths. The miscreants were chased away by security forces that were deployed in strength to ensure peaceful conduct of polls in the highly sensitive area that has witnessed several encounters between the security forces and terrorists.

Kupwara, which has many infiltration routes, had registered 30.8% polling till 1 pm, while Bandipura segment registered 20.9%. The overall polling till noon was 15.06% in the Baramulla district.

Only 5 votes were cast till noon in the Babgund village of Kupwara district.

Polling percentage in the four districts, Jammu, Samba, Rajouri and Poonch, of the Jammu Lok Sabha seat was also high as a large number of enthusiastic electorate turned out at the polling booths along the international border with Pakistan and the LoC along the Pakistan occupied Jammu and Kashmir (POJK).

52.1% votes were cast till 1 pm in the Samba district, 45.9% in Jammu, 44.8% in Rajouri and 35.8% in Poonch by the noon. Complaints of the EVM button for Congress candidate at the Shahpur polling booth in Poonch were received. The presiding officer confirmed this and polling was resumed later when the machine was replaced. Similar complaints were also received from certain other areas of the district.

Former chief minister and National Conference (NC) leader, Omar Abdullah, asked NC activists in the Jammu constituency to vote for Congress. He tweeted, “To all my @JKNC colleagues & workers in Jammu, Rajouri & Poonch districts please vote & use your vote to send a message against communalism, against fear & against broken promises of the last 5 years. Vote for Raman Bhalla & send him to the Lok Sabha to fight for J&K”.

The NC and PDP have not fielded their candidates against the Congress in both seats of the Jammu division, Jammu and Udhampur, in a bid to prevent split of votes. However, these parties are contesting against each other on the three Lok Sabha seats of the Kashmir valley.

As many as 33 candidates are in the fray for the Jammu and Baramulla seats. The main fight for the Jammu seat is between the sitting BJP MP Jugal Kishore, Congress’s Raman Bhalla, Bhim Singh of Panthers Party, Lal Singh of Dogra Swabhiman Sangathan and Rajiv Chunni, a leader of the POJK refugees.

The prominent contestants in Baramulla include Haji Farooq Ahmad Mir (Congress), Mohammad Maqbool War (BJP), Jahangir Khan (Panthers Party), Abdul Qayum Wani (PDP), Mohammad Akbar Lone (NC), Raja Aijaz Ali (Peoples Conference) and Engineer Rashid (Independent).