Kulgam: Coming out to fight elections for the first time after 1987, in a show of strength, banned Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI) Sunday organised a public rally in Bugam area of Kulgam district of south Kashmir.
As per news agency KNO, thousands of people showed up in the rally.
JeI is in the poll fray for the first time in over three decades despite being banned. The socio-religious organisation had stayed away from the polls whenever elections were held in J&K in the past three decades.
Its “change of heart” came to fore after massive participation of people in the Lok Sabha polls held in April-May this year in which a record voting of 58 percent was witnessed.
In February this year, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) extended the ban on Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI)-Jammu Kashmir under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) 1967 for another five years. JeI was first declared an “unlawful association” on February 28, 2019 by the MHA.
“We are here to say that the vacuum created by the regional political parties needs to be filled. People are our strength. Fingers will be raised at us and we will be criticised as well, but this is the reality,” KNO quoted JeI candidate Sayar Ahmed Reshi as saying.
Another candidate Aijaz Mir said if elected, he will serve the people of Kashmir without any compromise. “We will not promote corruption. We will work in a transparent manner. We will talk about Kashmir and Kashmiris. We will represent the aspirations of people in the assembly,” Mir said.
Bugam area of Kulgam was known for poll boycotts but the massive attendance of people in the JeI rally today may have surprised many.
Pertinently, the candidates fielded by JeI are fighting polls as independent candidates, hoping that if they are elected, they could fight for lifting of the ban on JeI.
JeI leader Ghulam Qadir Wani told KNO that earlier nobody was talking to them. “Now institutions have approached us and people also talked to us which ultimately paved the way for us to join the poll fray,” he said, without disclosing who approached them.
It may be recalled it was in 1987 when JeI had contested elections under the banner of Muslim United Front (MUF). The polls, which were allegedly rigged, paved the way for the eruption of militancy in Kashmir. (KNO)
