Srinagar, Oct 10 : Polling began Wednesday for the second phase of the four-phased municipal elections in Jammu and Kashmir to seal the fate of 1,029 candidates in fray across the state.

Voting began at 6 am on Wednesday morning amid stringent security arrangements, officials said.

They said the voting would take place at 544 polling stations across the state and would end at 4 pm.

The officials said 1,029 candidates - 881 in Jammu division and 148 in Kashmir division - are in the fray for 263 municipal wards, including 49 in Kashmir and 214 in Jammu.

A total of 65 candidates - 61 of them from Kashmir valley - have already won the polls uncontested, while in 56 wards all in the valley - no nomination was received, so no polling is taking place in those places, they said.

As many as 270 polling stations have been designated for voting in Kashmir Division and 274 in Jammu Division, they added.

The officials said the total electorate in these wards is 346,980 - 128,104 in Jammu Division belonging to 18 Municipal bodies and 218,876 in Kashmir Division of five Municipal bodies.

They said massive security arrangements have been put in place to ensure smooth conduct of the polls.

The elections, covering 79 municipal bodies with an electorate of about 17 lakh, are being held in four phases. A total of 3,372 nominations have been filed for 1,145 wards. The next phases will take place on October 13 and 16.

The National Conference (NC), the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the CPI(M) have boycotted the polls to protest the the legal challenge to Article 35A of the Constitution in the Supreme Court.

The government has declared holiday on the day of poll in the municipal areas concerned to enable voters cast their vote.

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New Delhi, Mar 18 (PTI): Three juveniles, including one who was recently out on bail in a murder case, were apprehended in connection with the stabbing of a 16-year-old boy in northwest Delhi's Ashok Vihar over to past dispute, an official said on Wednesday.

A PCR call on March 12 reported a stabbing incident in Ashok Vihar area in which one Altaf (16) sustained grievous injuries.

Police said the victim was rushed to hospital in a critical condition. With no eyewitnesses, and the victim initially unfit to give a statement, the case posed a challenge for investigators.

An FIR was registered under relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, and a team was constituted to probe the matter.

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After regaining consciousness, the victim disclosed the name of one of the assailants, providing a crucial lead. Acting on local inputs and surveillance, police conducted raids and tracked down the suspects.

Subsequently, three juveniles were apprehended and, during interrogation, they confessed to their involvement in the crime, police said.

The accused disclosed that they knew the victim and had a prior altercation over a trivial issue, which escalated into bitter enmity. Nursing a grudge, they conspired to attack him and stabbed the boy after intercepting him on the day of the incident.

Police said one of the apprehended juveniles had recently been released on bail in a murder case registered last year at the same police station.

The weapon of offence, a knife, was recovered at the instance of the accused.