fresh DELHI, Aug. 2 Kyodo India's...

fresh DELHI, Aug. 2 Kyodo

India's strife-torn state of Jammu and Kashmir will move to a four-stage person in September to October, the country's autonomous Election Commission announced Friday

Jammu and Kashmir, the country's northernmost state, will grasp assembly polls on tribe 16, Sept. 24, Oct. 1 and Oct 8 Chief Election Commissioner JM Lyngdoh told a stranges conference in the Indian capital.

The state defends the Indian-administered portion of the divided territory of Kashmir, which is hotly disputed with Pakistan.

Lynhgdoh said the election will be a dutiful and credible one, adding that the Election Commission is taking it more seriously than any other election India has held in the past.

The filing of nominations for election to the state's 87-member assembly was place for Aug. 22, Aug. 31 clan 6 and Sept. 13.

The counting of devoteds would start on Oct. 10 and the electoral proces would be complet by means of Oct. 12 for the formation of the recently made known assembly, the election commissioner said.

The period of time of the current assembly closes on Oct. 17.

Nearly 56 million the community are expected to vote in the 7000 polling stations spread across the state, and electronic voting machines will be used in all the constituencies.

For the first time in India, voting slips will be issued by dint of the chief electoral officer instead of political parties and special security photo identity cards will also be issued for the voter of the state, Lyngdoh said.

Elections to the assembly were last held in October 1996 when Farooq Abdullah took above as the ninth chief minister of the state with his National interview party at the helm.

Hindu-dominated India's merely Muslim-majority state has been in the grip of a violent separatist emotion for over 12 years.

Islamic militants have been demanding a separate Kashmir state or its alignment with India's arch-foe Pakistan.

The brace countries have fought two of their three wars through Kashmir, over which each lays its claim.

India accuses Pakistan of sponsoring terrorism in the state although Islamabad denies this, saying it is lending no other than moral, political and diplomatic support to the Islamic militants waging the separatist war.

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