In downtown Srinagar, however, the people stayed away. Outside the Srinagar grand mosque, dozens of CRPF personnel stood not allowing people to assemble at one place. “Why should we vote?” asked Tariq Ahmed, a local resident of Nowhatta. “We are for poll boycott and will never vote till the resolution of the Kashmir issue.”

The boycott was visible almost in the entire old city. In many polling booths at Habba Kadal, a constituency which was one time the home of Kashmiri Pandits in Srinagar city, people mostly stayed away. While even the Pandits didn’t cast their vote, the low turnout is likely to benefit the 12 Kashmiri Pandits in the fray as they were mostly banking on the poll boycott to help them.

“When majority of the people stay away, we don’t want to attract notice by casting the vote,” said a Kashmir Pandit.

Fourteen people, including a photojournalist, were injured in the clashes between anti-poll demonstrators and police during the voting.