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Sajjad Malik was watching the evening news at home last week when he heard someone scaling the outer wall of his compound. Before he knew it, four gunmen had slipped into his three-story house in a comfortable Srinagar neighborhood and occupied the top floor. After the 47-year-old shopkeeper and his family fled, Indian troops besieged the house, fired a shoulder-launched rocket at it and blew it apart. Malik was philosophical about his destroyed home—after all, Kashmiris have long endured violence. But they yearn for normalcy. Toward that end, Kashmiris are queuing to vote in a state assembly election with the potential to remind the world that the ballot box is a more potent weapon for change than a gun—or a rocket. India, as well as the U.S., asserts that Pakistan is once again permitting cross-border infiltration and attacks by militants seeking to sabotage the polls (Malik's house was next to a voting center, the probable target). Islamabad denies this and says the ballot is rigged to rubber-stamp New Delhi's grip on Kashmir. Caught in the crossfire are moderate Kashmiri leaders hoping to use the election as a channel to negotiate for greater autonomy, and ordinary Kashmiris weary of the bloodshed. Since the polls were announced in early August, nearly 400 people have been killed. The fight between India and Pakistan over Kashmir has already cost thousands of lives. Now, the price of democracy is also being paid in blood.
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