Pakistan's Attempt to Disrupt Polls a Failure: Advani

New Delhi, Sept. 15 2002 (INS News) -- Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani today termed Pakistan’s attempts to disrupt Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir as "failure" and asserted that there would be free and fair polling in the state with people participating in the process with "enthusiasm" in their quest to end terrorism.

Talking to reporters after inaugurating a photo exhibition of veteran photographer Vijendra Tyagi in New Delhi, Advani said that despite an upsurge in violence, people of J&K thought that increasing participation in the poll process would play a significant role in stamping out terrorism.

He said that even the assassination of state Law Minister Mushtaq Ahmed Lone failed to create any adverse impact on the election process as intended by Pakistan and added that today's attack on state tourism Minister Sakeena Itoo was yet another attempt to disrupt elections.

Asserting that security forces have succeeded in curbing terrorism effectively, Advani said the biggest success lay in the fact that Pakistan was now failing to lure Kashmiris for armed training and send them back to carry out terrorist activity.

The Deputy Prime Minister said that now only foreign merceneries including Afghans and others were being sent for terrorist violence in Jammu and Kashmir.

-- Sam Asharaf - South Asia Correspondent in Trivandrum, India
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