‘Human shield’ did not vote, but 216 from his village did

Ishfaq Tantry

Tribune News Service

Khan Saheb (Budgam), April 18

Human shield victim Farooq Ahmad Dar from Budgam district, which went to the polls on Thursday, stayed away from voting as he was on “duty” with health officials of Sub-District Hospital, Khan Saheb.

His village, however, ignored the poll boycott calls and by evening over 200 persons from his native Chill village had cast their vote at the only polling booth set up at a government school. Budgam is part of the Srinagar parliamentary constituency.

“Dar works as a consolidated safaiwallah (sweeper) and is posted at Sub-District Hospital, Khan Saheb,” said Nazir Ahmad Bhat, Chief Medical Officer (CMO), Budgam.

On Thursday, Dar was deputed by the hospital with a medical camp, which was organised at Girls Higher Secondary School, Khan Saheb. The camp was set up to provide medical assistance to the polling staff.

“He was not on poll duty as is being claimed,” the CMO told The Tribune, adding that Dar was appointed sweeper in the health department on a consolidated basis in 2005.

Braving the boycott calls by separatists, Dar, 29, had cast his vote during the April 2017 Srinagar parliamentary bypoll, but this time he did not vote.

In the electoral voter list of booth number 107, set up at Government Middle School, Chill, in the Khan Saheb Assembly Segment of Budgam district, Dar’s name figured at serial number 641.

By 5 pm, neither Dar nor his elderly mother, Fazi Begum, who lives with him in a single-storey mud house in the remote village, had cast their vote. “Neither Dar nor his mother turned up at the polling station,” said Showkat Hussain Sheikh, Booth Level Officer.

By 6 pm, of the 890 registered voters in Chill village, 216 voters had cast their vote, he said. Dar was not available in his village as mediapersons looked for him on the voting day. “Dar is not at home,” said Ghulam Qadir, Dar’s brother.

On April 9, 2017, Major Leetul Gogoi had tied Dar, an embroidery artisan, to the bonnet of an Army jeep to escape heavy stone-throwing in Budgam district during by elections. The picture went on to make global headlines and put a spotlight on the civilian-security polarisation in the Valley.