Banned Jamaat-e-Islami Likely To Contest J&K Polls, Sajad Lone Extends 'Warm Welcome'

Sajad Gani Lone, the chief of Jammu and Kashmir Peoples Conference (JKPC) has welcomed Jamaat-e-Islami’s (JeI) affiliates’ reported decision to contest the upcoming Jammu and Kashmir polls, set to be held in three phases – from September 18 to October 1.

This comes after media reports suggested members of the banned outfit were mulling to contest the Assembly polls in Jammu and Kashmir as independent candidates.

In an X post, Lone said, “I am extremely pleased if the news that some individuals affiliated with Jamaat Islamia are contesting elections is true. I sincerely hope it is.”

“J&K People’s Conference and Jamaat have coexisted in the mainstream political space prior to 1989. We rarely agreed politically and often fought each other bitterly in elections. Ideologically there was never an overlap. Many of their prominent leaders spent years in jail, often sharing cells with my late father,” Lone wrote on X.

“Today, we will be contesting against them on the ground once again. But despite our political differences, I am glad that a party which has truly struggled will be participating in the elections. They have experienced imprisonment, torture, and the most harrowing of times. They know what pain is and are therefore in a better position to understand the suffering of others,” he added.

Lone also stressed on the “victim” and “victor” debate, alleging that “the mainstream space has been dominated by those who were victors—those who jailed, killed, and tortured people during the worst times of violence in the post-1989 era.”

“These VICTORS, being in the majority, would band together and pretend to be victims. They have become experts in the art of VICTIMHOOD. And whenever a genuine victim enters the mainstream space, these VICTORS gang up to unleash a slanderous campaign,” Lone tweeted.

“Once again, a very warm welcome from me and my party. We will fight each other on the ground, but with my hand on my heart, I am glad that a group among the victims will contest,” he added.

According to a media report, many former militants and separatists have come together to form a political group to contest the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections.

The group includes former members of the JeI, it suggested.

The group has been named ‘Tahreek-e-Awam’, the report stated.

MEHBOOBA MUFTI SAYS BAN ON JAMAAT-E-ISLAMI SHOULD BE REVOKED

On Sunday (August 25), People’s Democratic Party (PDP) chief, Mehbooba Mufti, said the banned outfit’s willingness to contest the Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir is a good step. She also said the ban on JeI should be revoked.

“It is a good thing. I want the Government of India to revoke ban on the JeI because if you are not banning communal organisations which are spreading venom in this country, I do not want to name them, those who take out rallies, pelt stones on mosques, lynch Muslims, then why is there a ban on the JeI which has contributed a lot in the education sector, helped people in floods of 2014 and Covid?” Mufti told reporters in Srinagar.

She claimed the people in north Kashmir voted for “plebiscite sentiment” in the Lok Sabha polls by electing incarcerated Sheikh Abdul Rashid alias Engineer Rashid.

Rashid, a two-time MLA from the erstwhile seat of Langate in north Kahsmir’s Kupwara, supported a plebiscite for Jammu and Kashmir.

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT JAMAAT-E-ISLAMI

Jamaat is an Islamist and pro-Pakistan organisation that has been linked to violence against Hindus in the past.

Since former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s ouster, the nation has been enveloped in a wave of violence against Hindus and other ethnic minorities. Jamaat had led a wave of similar violence in 2001 as well.

In 2001, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP)-Jamaat alliance won the country’s elections.

Following their victory, their cadres unleashed a wave of violence upon the nation’s minority in which hundreds of attacks and rapes of women were reported.

A judicial commission set up in later years concluded that more than 200 Hindu women were raped and around 25,000 BNP and Jamaat cadres took part in the violence.