SRINAGAR: Police in India-held Kashmir have detained more than 500 residents as well as leaders before the latest round of voting in the disputed region, officers and Kashmiri groups said on Tuesday.

Police said the crackdown took place in Srinagar and throughout the constituency that votes on Wednesday as part of the staggered six-week general election.

“To ensure peaceful and violence-free polling in Central Kashmir, police have taken preventive measures and arrested around 400 stone-throwers and trouble-mongers,” a police statement said.

“Nobody will be allowed to disrupt the electoral process. The arrests have been made and will continue to be effected to instil confidence among the voters.”

“In addition, police targeted some 130 residents whom they suspect would lead protests on Wednesday against the polls, arresting them in raids on their homes,” a senior officer said. “About 130 people were arrested since yesterday (Monday) in Srinagar.”

The volatile Kashmir valley, where a movement against Indian rule is centred, posed a heightened challenge for security forces during previous rounds of polling earlier this month.

Top leaders, who reject the elections as well as Indian rule over Kashmir, have been detained in police stations or confined to their houses, separate statements from two main groupings said.

Senior leader Syed Ali Geelani, who was placed under house arrest, accused the Indian government of creating an “environment of fear and panic among the common people... so that people will get terrified and be forced to participate in this election drama”.

He said in a statement that the raids and arrests made the election “merely a military operation and a one-sided game”.

Voting has been light so far in the valley for the election after a campaign by local militant groups, who warned locals not to take part.

Police faced stone-throwing protesters in the southern Kashmir valley during voting on April 24. They used tear gas and batons to disperse crowds protesting against the poll.

About a dozen militant groups have been fighting Indian forces since 1989 either for independence or for the merger of the territory with Pakistan. The fighting has left tens of thousands, mostly civilians, dead.—Agencies