Tight security for Kashmir elections

"We have made adequate security arrangements for peaceful by-elections," senior police officer K. Rajinder Kumar told reporters.

The special voting, or by-election, to fill four vacant state assembly seats in Kashmir is due to be held Monday. Three politicians have already been killed by suspected Islamic rebels during the campaigns and several candidates have escaped assassination attempts.

Kashmir Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad is one of the 17 candidates running for the four seats. About 288,000 people are eligible to vote in the four districts.

Azad, standing for India's federal ruling Congress party, took the reins of the disputed territory in November.