Kashmir gets 1st pandit woman panch

“Regardless of what the extremist elements of both sides want the world to believe, there is still hope for the Valley and Kashmiriyat,” said chief minister Omar Abdullah in a tweet soon after Aasha Jee became the first Kashmiri pandit woman to be elected a panch from the Muslim-majority Valley on Monday night.

He was quite contented and felt exalted particularly at locals having said, “We didn’t see whether she is a Muslim or non-Muslim as she is a nice lady. We gave her preference over Muslim candidates.”
Ms Asha, 59, defeated her lone rival Sarwa Begum, a Kashmiri Muslim, by 11 votes in the seventh phase of the ongoing Jammu and Kashmir panchayat elections. The village-level polls are being held after a gap of over a decade in the restive state. Despite a boycott call from hardline separatist leader, people have turned up in large numbers to vote.
However, the elections at places have been marked by a few violent incidents like the one reported from Machipora, Zaingeer outside the northwestern town of Sopore on Tuesday, when unidentified assailants shot and wounded a candidate identified as Ghulam Mohiuddin.

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