J&K Assembly polls: Jailed cleric to contest as Independent

Srinagar, Aug 27 (IANS) Following the footsteps of incarcerated MP Engineer Rashid, a separatist cleric Sarjan Barkati, currently in jail, has decided to fight the upcoming Assembly elections as an Independent candidate from J&K’s Shopian district.

Known as the ‘Azadi Chacha’ during the tumultuous years of violence when Hizbul poster boy, Burhan Wani was killed in an encounter with the security forces in the Kokernag area of Anantnag district on July 8, 2016, Sarjan Barkati delivered some of the most vitriolic lectures and sermons extolling youth to violence.

Barkati originally named Sarjan Ahmad Wagay, belongs to Reban village of Shopian district.

His daughter told reporters that the family has already held a meeting with the locals who have assured all their support to her father in the Assembly elections.

She is expected to hold a press conference later in the day while the family said they are now moving to file Sarjan Barkati’s nomination paper before the district returning officer.

Barkati was arrested on October 1, 2016, and later released in October 2020.

He was again arrested by the State Investigation Agency (SIA) in August 2023 in a terror funding case and later his wife was also arrested.

His entry into the democratic process is part of the Jamaat-e-Islami religio-political organisation’s decision to field ex-members as Independent candidates in the Assembly elections.

Sources said Barkati would be supported by the Jamaat cadre during the election campaign.

Jamaat has already said that they will field Independent candidates for 10 to 12 seats and will support those of the Awami Itihad Party of Lok Sabha member, Engineer Rashid in North Kashmir's Kupwara district and other places and will not come into direct contest with the AIP candidates.

The joining of elections by the Jamaat-e-Islami has far-reaching consequences in J&K.

This highly cadre-based organisation not only supported separatist violence, but also had its terror outfit, the Hizbul Mujahideen.

The decision to join the elections is proof of the Jamaat rank and file accepting the futility of violence and wielding the gun.

It also indicates the faith this organisation has now developed in the fairness and transparency of the election process in India.

Being generally called the ‘Return of the Prodigal’, the re-entry of Jamaat into electoral politics could add a new dimension to electioneering by posing a serious challenge to otherwise well-entrenched regional plates like the National Conference (NC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Fighting elections is nothing new to the Jamaat. Its most popular leader, the late Syed Ali Shah Geelani fought elections from the North Kashmir Sopore Assembly seat and represented the constituency thrice.

In 1987, the Jamaat was part of the Muslim United Front (MUF) that fought the elections against the NC.

Those elections were widely rigged and everybody believes that it was the rigging of the 1987 elections by Dr Farooq Abdullah-led NC government that triggered armed violence in J&K.

Local youth had predominantly joined the 1987 elections in support of the MUF candidates.

The mass rigging of those elections is believed to have disappointed and disgruntled the local youth with the country’s democratic system which later resulted in their taking recourse to the guns provided by the country’s enemy across the Line of Control (LoC).

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