It was 1991. A coffin was left outside a polling booth in Srinagar, the militancy-ridden capital of Jammu and Kashmir in northern India, with the dire warning: “A free drive to hell who comes out to vote first”. Nobody did, and the voting percentage in the parliamentary election didn’t cross double digits.

Cut to 2009. Another election, 18 years later where a boycott is in place but the pull of democracy has pushed people out of their homes to cast their

vote with the turnout in the first two phases close to the halfway mark.

Just four months earlier, in the assembly elections to elect a new government for the state, 58-63 percent of the voters turned up.

Kashmiris moving out in droves and queuing up to vote is a significant political statement, an expression of faith in Indian democracy, one that

until recently could have been fatal given militant threats and boycott calls from separatists that had been largely effective in the state where

terrorism has claimed over 47,000 lives in the last two decades.

Symptomatic of the enormous change is Sajjad Lone, the head of the Jammu and Kashmir People’s Conference, who favoured the boycott call in the last

elections but is today busy canvassing for himself from the north Kashmir constituency of Baramulla from where he is contesting the parliamentary

elections.

Lone, the first separatist leader of his stature to join the democratic process since the outbreak of militancy over two decades ago, is the younger

son of slain separatist leader Abdul Gani Lone. He said candidly: “It is a change of strategy… I will take the problems of the Kashmiri people to

the Indian parliament.”

People like Lone have listened to the many voices speaking out in Kashmir, the beautiful land of lakes and vales immortalized in many a verse. The

forces of terrorism that ravaged Kashmir have also threatened large parts of the world, including the Central Asian republics.

“Kashmir has been a victim of external forces that have contributed hugely to the rise of terrorism and fundamentalism, which not only threatens the

subcontinent but the whole world, including Central Asian republics - from where Kashmir has got its culture of peace and co-existence.

“Indian democracy has always been a target of extremist forces in Pakistan that instigated terrorism and fundamentalism in the otherwise peaceful vale

of Kashmir,” said Rasool, a student of political science in Srinagar.

Not any more.

The boycott call has been received with defiance. Civic issues like roads, electricity, water, healthcare, education, employment, infrastructure

development and incentives to trade and industry are on the minds of many voters.

“We learned through their (separatists’) mistakes what they cannot do or are incapable of doing,” said 40-year-old Ishtiaq Ahmed Jan, a government clerk

earning Rs.12,000 (less than $250) a month.

“They have all the facilities for themselves. Their kids are studying abroad. And they would tell us to raise pro-freedom slogans on the streets.

“I lost my youth to this unending war. I don’t want my kids to fall victims to hollow emotion,” added Jan, a father of eight-year-old twins.

People of Jan’s age group were mostly the ones who rallied behind the separatists when they were in the prime of their youth.

“I missed on my college life. Our lives were stagnated. When the world was moving forward, we were behind these bunch of jokers,” said Jan.

But today he is happy, bestowing his faith in Indian democracy, which he says “is nothing less than a miracle”.

“We have to have our voices heard in the Indian parliament. We have to demand compensation for our losses. And for that there is no other option

than voting our good people to power,” he said.

Jan is among one of the millions of voters who have baffled separatist leaders, some of whom have this time “delinked the main Kashmir issue” from

electoral politics.

Said Bashir Manzar, editor of the daily Kashmir Images: “The last assembly elections dealt a big blow to the separatists. If the voting trend continues

it will be a big, big victory for India.”

“Kashmiris have learned to prioritise issues like bread and butter, good education, decent paying jobs, healthcare and safe drinking water. The rest

they think can wait. These issues are pushing them towards the ballot.”

The Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), which is rumoured to have links with the global terror network Al Qaeda, issued a warning of suicide

attacks during the polls.

“People who will vote will be doing so on their own peril,” said a spokesperson of the LeT.

But Jan says the LeT threat is “nothing new”. “What is new is people’s faith in democracy. Sajjad has learned a lesson. Let others fall in line. The

sooner the