A polling officer marks the finger of a Kashmiri woman with indelible ink inside a polling station in Bragpora, some 65 kilometers (41 miles) south of Srinagar, India, Thursday, April 24, 2014.
Mohammad Amin Pandith, a father-of-three from Kashmir, was lured from his home at night by a man in army uniform, dragged along a potholed lane and shot in the back of the head.
His execution was one of three deadly attacks on village elders in the last week and was blamed on militants determined to derail elections. It spread fear through the hamlet of Gulzarpora and meant that in some areas near here, voter turnout was as low as 2 percent today.
In a terrorist attack in Shopian in South Kashmir, an election official was killed and five others injured.
"People are very afraid," Pandith's brother Abdul Rahim said before the vote.
He said Pandith's "crime" had been to act as village headman for the PDP (Peoples Democratic Party), a regional party now in opposition. The 45-year-old was paid 2,000 rupees a month for the job.
As the national election progress, Kashmir's 1.25 crore people are trying to determine the possible impact of the victory that's being forecast by opinion polls for the BJP and its prime ministerial candidate, Narendra Modi.
The 64-year-old is accused by detractors of not doing enough to stop communal riots in 2002 in which more than 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, were killed in Gujarat, where he is still chief minister. Mr Modi denies the charges, which have also been rejected by a Supreme Court inquiry. A Gujarat court agreed with the conclusion that there is no evidence that Mr Modi colluded in the violence.
The BJP has in the past spoken of the need to abrogate Article 370, a clause in the constitution that grants Jammu and Kashmir a degree of autonomy. Mr Modi has said a debate with all stake-holders is needed on the issue.
Talk of a "wave" of support for Modi across India brings a wry smile to the lips of Mehboob Beg, who is seeking re-election in Anantnag on a joint ticket of Congress and its regional ally, the Jammu & Kashmir National Conference, that runs the state."The more the wave is in favour of Narendra Modi, the more it will help us," Beg said before addressing a crowd of 3,000 in Kokernag, a township that hosts a large police base.
Playing up the secular ideology of Congress and independence leader Jawaharlal Nehru's roots in the region, Beg said: "Congress understands Kashmir better than the BJP and Modi. This is a Muslim-majority state, for God's sake!"