SRINAGAR: Kashmir resident Farooq Ahmad Dar, who was tied to the bonnet of an Army vehicle and driven around in over a dozen villages in a bid to deter stone pelters from targeting the forces during the bypoll for the Srinagar Lok Sabha seat in April 2017, did not cast his vote during polling for the second phase of the general elections on Thursday.
The 30-year-old artisan, who is skilled at intricate embroidery work, did not show up to get his finger inked at polling station number 107 in his native village Chill Brass in central Kashmir’s Budgam district.
“He was listed as voter number 641. However, he did not turn up to vote,” a polling official said.
The polling station was heavily fortified, with a sizeable contingent of police and paramilitary personnel, in full riot gear and armed with automatic weapons, keeping a close watch on the movement of locals and frisking male voters before letting them in. While Dar was reportedly away on polling day, his mother, too, did not cast her vote.
“By not casting their votes, Farooq and his mother registered their protest against the harassment and humiliation meted out to him by the Army Major (Leetul Gogoi) and his fellow jawans during the Srinagar Lok Sabha bypoll on April 9, 2017,” a relative said.
“The 2017 incident did affect the turnout at this polling station today. Had the voting this time not been a choice between divisive and secular elements, we, too, wouldn’t have voted. We voted in favour of secular forces,” Ghulam Mohammad, a local, said.
Station 107 drew a largely lukewarm turnout on the day.
Dar is currently employed as a sweeper in the state health department. “He was on medical duty today at the Model polling station at a school in Budgam’s Khan Sahib,” Dr Nazir Ahmad Bhat, Chief Medical Officer, Budgam, told this newspaper.
“Dar cast his vote in the 2017 bypoll. But what did he get in return? Harassment and humiliation. Instead of acting against Major Gogoi for using Dar as a human shield, he was honoured with the Army chief’s ‘Commendation Card’,” said human rights activist Mohammad Ahsan Untoo, who had filed a plea at the J&K State Human Rights Commission, seeking compensation for the 30-year-old.