Kandi villagers reach polling station amid fear, shadow of guns

Rajouri, May 25:  Kandi is a remote village of Rajouris' Kotranka sub division and is located at the foothills of Kandi mountain ranges.

The people from tribal community including Gujjar, Bakerwals and Paharis living in this area still recount the fear and horror that they had to face in the year 2023.

Two major incidents happened in this village last year that include May 5 encounter at Kesari Hill in which five Commandos of Indian Armys' Elite Para Force lost their lives while one officer got injured in encounter.

It was followed by another major incident on October 17 in which a man Mohammad Azam and his wife Gulzar Begum were brutally murdered inside their house at Kesari Hill and their bodies were also having damage injuries.

The case of this double murder is still unsolved with many people suspect it to be a terror act.

Both these incident that took place in this village last year spread a wave of panic with people of this area still recount the horror they had to face. "We still take dinner in evening hours and enter inside houses by dark times as the area is still lumped in horror of these twin incidents," Naaz Ahmed of the village said who, however, added that people of this area braved this fear and visited the polling stations in large number to cast their vote.

Furthermore, this area was also declared as hypersensitive in terms of apprehension of terror incident and a special Quick Reaction Team (QRT) of police and CRPF was stationed at Kandi Khadyoon bridge to keep close surveillance of the area.

"We visited our polling station to cast vote under the shadow of gun," Kala Khan said adding that even after fear of last year incidents, people from the area in large numbers have exercised their franchise and the area will witness a high voter turnover.