PDP candidate accuses police of assault inside polling station in J&K’s Kishtwar

Kishtwar (J&K), Sep 18 (PTI) PDP Kishtwar candidate in J&K Firdous Ahmad Tak on Wednesday accused police of assaulting him after he objected to his BJP counterpart Shagun Parihar’s alleged attempt to check the identity cards of women voters at a polling station here.

Additional Deputy Commissioner, Kishtwar Pawan Kotwal said the voting remained unaffected and an inquiry has been ordered into the incident at Bagwan polling station to know the actual facts for taking appropriate action.

The Bagwan polling station is considered to be communally sensitive.

“I came to know from my workers that the BJP candidate had come to the polling station and is intimidating the female voters by checking their identity cards. This is presumed as an attempt by the party to hamper voting.

“I reached there and politely asked her that you are like my sister and daughter as I consider your father as my elder brother and if you have any objection, inform the presiding officer,” Tak, a former member of legislative council told PTI.

However, he said, she refused and in the meantime some BJP workers came and tried to disrupt the voting and peaceful atmosphere.

“The police did not act against them for one-and-a-half hours and when I objected, a senior officer pushed me to silence me. When I told him that I am a contesting candidate, he slapped and kicked me in full public view which clearly shows how police are working like BJP agents,” he alleged.

BJP leader Jahanzaib Sirwal blamed the PDP for the “ugly situation” and said “the goons of the party felt frustrated on seeing long queues of the people outside the polling stations indicative of flourished democracy under Modi-led government’.

“The PDP workers tried to browbeat the BJP candidate without any provocation. Such things can be expected from a party which has lost its ground in J&K and does nowhere exist,” he said, terming the incident as “unfortunate and undemocratic”.

Additional Deputy Commissioner Pawan Kumar Kotwal, who rushed to the scene, said the concerned sector magistrate has been asked to inquiry the incident thoroughly and submit his report so that appropriate action will be taken against the erring persons.

“There was some issue on identity cards which was resolved on time. The sector magistrate is present there and the voting is going on at the polling station peacefully,” he said, expressing happiness over 60 per cent polling recorded in the district till 1 pm with no untoward incident reported from anywhere.