SRINAGAR, Oct 6: Final preparations were being made on Sunday for the last round of elections in occupied Kashmir as six people died in attacks in the Valley, police said.

Three soldiers were killed and three injured along with a woman when Kashmiri fighters opened fire on Sunday on an army convoy, police said.

The attack was in the southern Rajouri district, which went to the polls in the first round of the four-phase vote on Sept 16.

Sunday was the last day of campaigning for the last round of voting on Tuesday in six constituencies of the violence-torn district of Doda and one seat in Lolab in the northern district of Kupwara, which borders Azad Kashmir.

Voting in Lolab was supposed to take place in the first round, but was delayed after the assassination of the ruling National Conference candidate and state law minister Mushtaq Lone on Sept 11.

Kashmiris fighting Indian rule have vowed to disrupt the four-phase polls by killing anyone taking part.

Late on Saturday Kashmiris killed a pro-India political party activist in southern Poonch district, taking the toll of political activists killed since Aug 2 when India announced the dates of the election to 42.

Kashmiri fighters also barged into a house in the northern Baramulla district late on Saturday and shot dead two civilians, police said.

Mujahideen on Sunday threw a grenade at a security patrol in Doda town, but it missed its target and no one was injured.

“Security forces have been put on high alert in the Doda and Lolab areas where polling takes place on Oct 8,” said Kashmir police chief Ashok Kumar Suri.

There are 67 candidates joining the fray in the seven constituencies on Tuesday, a total of 460,519 voters and 623 polling stations, which will all be heavily guarded.

Helicopters will air-drop officials and supplies at 46 voting stations in particularly remote areas of Doda.

New Delhi has hailed that more than 40 per cent turnout in all the three rounds as a success, although Kashmiri groups, who are boycotting the election have charged the Indian army with forcing people to vote.

On Saturday the chief of the Indian army in Kashmir, V.G. Patankar, denied the allegations.

“These allegations are baseless. The job that was given to us was to create an environment that is secure for the people to come out and vote,” the army chief said.

“I think that security forces have done that reasonably well,” he said.—AFP