By the beginning of 1996, the years old Pakistan sponsored militancy had been brought under great control, a turnaround achieved in the mood and response of the people. The Central and the State Governments embarked upon ambitious, almost audacious, endeavour of conducting elections in Jammu and Kashmir. It was a mammoth task to organize the movement, transport, accommodation and connected logistic support for the large number of additional security force units being inducted into the State for ensuring peaceful polling, a task made more difficult by the limited availability of time and resources and increased efforts by the ISI of Pakistan and the militant organizations to disrupt the process. Arrangements were also made for identifying and the marshalling services of over ten thousand polling personnel from outside the State to supervise the elections in the Valley, as local employees under threat of reprisals from the terrorists were not coming forward to perform the duty. This book gives a vivid and exhaustive account of how the herculean task to ensure credible and peaceful Parliamentary elections followed by the Assembly elections was achieved in the State. The 1996 elections by all standards were an end in themselves. However, these also firmed up the ground for further consolidation of the democratic process for future. Biggest gain of this exercise was holding of yet another credible elections for the State Assembly in September 2002 when the people wielded the power of ballot with confidence to bring in a mighty political revolution.
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