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It is a village forgotten by man and god alike. More journalists visit Soibagh than government officials.
This sleepy hamlet, tucked away near a vast wetland in central Kashmir, is home to one of the most important persons in the history of militancy in the state - supreme leader of the Hizbul Mujahideen Mohammed Yousuf Shah alias Syed Salahuddin.
His single-storeyed house is just a few hundred metres away from a neglected government hospital. The roof is gone, the windows are broken and cattle stray into its lawn.
Before he joined the ranks of militants, Salahuddin, then Yousuf Shah led the Friday prayers at a mosque in Srinagar, taught the holy Quran to the children in Soibagh and lived in this now abandoned house.
When he contested the infamous 1987 assembly elections from Amirakadal constituency in Srinagar, the National Conference-Congress combine alleged rigged the poll to ensure his defeat.
This village will be among those that will go to the poll on Tuesday, in the second phase of the assembly elections. But no rallies, no public meetings in this village.
The only sign of political activity are a few buntings of the People's Democratic Party, led by former Union home minister Mufti Mohammed Sayed.
Workers of the ruling National Conference did try to organise a public meeting to be addressed by Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah, but failed to win support among the villagers.
"We told them you cannot have this rally here, after having neglected the village for years," said Shabir Ahmed, a local youth.
Soibagh residents hold Salahuddin in high esteem. But despite their strong separatist leanings, the 6000-odd voters will not boycott the polls as they see it as the only way to punish the ruling National Conference for the neglect.
Their most important problem - water scarcity.
"We go without taking a bath for days at a stretch. You have to save every available drop of water for there is not enough even to drink. We are lucky the day a public works department tanker comes to the village," said Mohammed Yusuf, a local farmer, dressed in a tattered kurta pyjama.
"We are not interested in the electoral process. Yousuf sahib contested elections in '87, but you know what happened. But we will vote, for we have to teach a lesson to the ruling party," said Abdul Rahman, another local.
Interestingly, the first people to cast their votes are Salahuddin's relatives. "The security forces ask them to come out and they do so to save their skin. Every election, Doordarshan unfailingly shows Salahuddin's brother voting," says Riyaz Ahmad, one of his neighbours.
Salahuddin's brothers - Ghulam Nabi Shah and Ghulam Mohiuddin Shah - are farmers and were at their fields when this correspondent visited the village. His nephew Nazir Ahmed, a teacher, said, "Pakistan, India and Kashmiris should sincerely find a way to solve the Kashmir issue."
"I last saw my uncle in 1993 after which he left for Pakistan. Never spoke to him again," he said.
Talk of elections and he plays safe. "Whom do you vote for? No candidate has done anything for us," he said.
Would the Hizb chief's kin boycott the polls? "We always vote," Ahmed says with a smile.
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