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Basharat Peer in Srinagar
It was a murder most sensational.
One moment, the young law and parliamentary affairs minister of Jammu and Kashmir was addressing an election rally in the countryside of his native Kupwara district on Wednesday.
A few minutes later, around 1430 hours IST, Mushtaq Ahmed Lone and three policemen - Mohammed Yasin, Gulzar Shah and Bhushan Singh - guarding him became mere statistics when they joined the list of the dead.
Following the gruesome killing, Chief Minister Dr Farooq Abdullah and National Conference president Omar Abdullah rushed to the spot - Tikripora village in Lolab assembly segment.
"It was an act of cowardice and an effort by the enemies of the country to thwart the electoral process. Militants and their patrons in Pakistan are unnerved by the enthusiasm of the people to participate in the elections," Omar Abdullah said.
This incident may affect not only the outcome in Lolab, but also the healthy electioneering now on in north Kashmir, especially Kupwara, where slain Hurriyat leader Abdul Gani Lone's People's Conference is believed to have fielded dummy candidates.
Abdul Haq, a former member of the People's Conference, was believed to have the upper hand in Lolab. However, Lone's death might tilt the balance in favour of the National Conference for two reasons.
First, the sympathy factor and second, the probable candidate to replace Lone will be Nasir Sogami, who has a strong following in the constituency.
Sogami belongs to a family with a political background and his grandfather was a minister in the state government decades back.
Lone is the second NC minister to be killed by militants. Earlier on May 5, 2000, Hizbul Mujahideen militants had killed power minister Ghulam Hasan Bhat in a landmine blast in Anantnag district.
The National Conference, which is the oldest political party in the state, has borne the brunt of militant attacks in the valley. The killings of political workers started on August 21, 1989 when two JKLF militants killed a NC activist M Y Halwai in Srinagar.
Between Halwai's murder in 1989 and Lone's assassination on Wednesday afternoon, around 460 political activists have been killed by militants of which NC workers account for around 350, Congress about 54, BJP about 15 and PDP - 9. Out of these, 18 were legislators.
"We have lost hundreds of our workers, but it will not deter us," Omar Abdullah said.
But it is not just enemies the militants have targeted.
On May 21, 1990, Mirwaiz Mohammed Farooq, a popular separatist leader, was gunned down by suspected militants in Srinagar. Exactly 12 years later, another separatist leader Abdul Gani Lone was assassinated in the same city on the same date.
The killing of the state law minister has thrown up some frightening questions, especially for other candidates - If the law minister cannot be protected, what chance do the others have?
Non-NC candidates had already been complaining to the Election Commission of discrimination on matters of security.
"The EC has directed the state police to maintain equity in providing security to candidates irrespective of their party affiliations and keep in mind the threat perception to candidates," said J&K Deputy Chief Electoral Officer Dheeraj Gupta.
All the candidates have been provided with armed police personnel for their protection, EC officials said, but expressed their inability to provide a bullet-proof car to every candidate.
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