India deploys election cops
2004-04-19 15:06
New Delhi - Tens of thousands of paramilitary troops have been deployed in some of India's deadliest troublespots on the eve of national elections amid security fears heightened by attempts on the lives of two politicians, police and officials said on Monday.
Police said prominent regional politician Yerran Naidu survived a midnight landmine ambush in southern Andhra Pradesh state while outgoing Textile Minister Sahnawaz Hussain said assailants tried to run him down overnight in adjoining Bihar.
In other pre-poll violence, Sushil Modi, president of the Bihar chapter of the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), survived an attack on Sunday by unidentified men in the state capital of Patna.
Police also reported that federal election officials travelling to a Bihar constituency had a miraculous escape on Monday when three landmines planted by Maoist rebels blew up before their bus drove into the ambush, police said.
Tuesday's voting is scheduled to be held in 140 of the 543 federal seats up for grabs, with elections to the remaining seats staggered over four dates until May 10.
In all, some two million federal militia and state policemen are being deployed for the world's largest exercise in democracy, an election commission official said.
India's interior ministry said it had deployed paramilitary forces to 11 of the 15 states where Islamic, Maoist and tribal guerrillas have issued separate calls to boycott the parliamentary elections, the fourth since 1996.
A ministry spokesperson said special attention was being paid to states such as Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Orissa, Mizoram and Indian Kashmir where various groups are opposed to the polls.
About 60 000 paramilitary troops, meanwhile, were sent to four far eastern states, where voting will be held on Tuesday in 10 constituencies, a provincial spokesperson said.
Three frontline separatist groups in Manipur, which borders Myanmar, have issued death threats and called for a boycott of the elections in the state as well as a 17-hour general strike beginning early on Tuesday.
The eastern state of Jharkhand, shaken by the April 7 death of 26 policemen in a landmine ambush blamed on Maoist guerrillas, has sought 15 000 extra paramilitary troops for the balloting in its 14 constituencies on Tuesday and on Monday next week, a spokesperson said.
The Jharkhand Maoists, who have links with leftwing guerrillas in neighbouring Bihar, Orissa and Andhra Pradesh states, have called for mass opposition to the elections, arguing the event offers little benefit to the region's landless farmers.