Polls closed in Kashmir's main city today, bringing to an end the crucial final phase of state elections in the disputed region after sporadic clashes between police and dozens of separatists.
The lead-up to the vote had been overshadowed by heightened tension between India and Pakistan, which both claim Kashmir, after last month's Mumbai attacks.
India deployed thousands of police and troops in case of separatist violence in Kashmir.
In Srinagar, the heart of a nearly 20-year separatist campaign against Indian rule, police said 15 people were injured when police clashed with dozens of stone-throwing protesters in three areas. Three police were among the injured.
Police responded with batons and teargas.
"Overall the voting was peaceful and the turnout is considerably higher than in 2002 elections," said Kulbushan Jandail, the Jammu and Kashmir government's chief spokesman.
Officials said there had been a 13 per cent voter turnout by mid-afternoon. The final turnout figures will be released later tonight, with the statewide poll results expected on Sunday.
Muslim-majority Srinagar, Kashmir's summer capital, and the Hindu-majority city of Jammu, the state's winter capital, both went to the polls today.
Kuldeep Khoda, director general of Kashmir police, told reporters that intelligence intercepts indicated "terrorists and separatists" would try to disrupt voting.
In Srinagar, police and soldiers armed with assault rifles blocked off lanes with razor wire and iron barricades, while sniffer dogs searched polling booths for bombs.
Indian police said yesterday they had arrested three militants, one of them a Pakistani soldier, for allegedly planning a suicide attack during the vote but Pakistan denied the man was a serving soldier.
Kashmiri separatists, many of them in jail, called for a boycott of the seven-stage polls, saying India portrays voting as an endorsement of its rule over the Himalayan region.
Reuters