Signalling his intent to work within the Indian political framework, Khan is contesting the first J&K polls in 10 years from Habba Kadal. The constituency votes Tuesday in the third and last phase before the 8 October results.
Asked what led to his transformation, Khan told ThePrint, “We saw several innocent people killed in the name of ‘Azaadi‘, and when we raised questions, we were asked to remain quiet. Jab begunah logo ka khoon behte dekha toh phir mera mann militancy se hatt gaya (When I saw the blood of innocents flow, I moved away from militancy).”
“Our ancestors were not mad that they decided to stay with India. Kashmir ka kya masla hai, koi masla nahi hai (What is the issue in Kashmir? There is no issue),” he said. “In PoK, you can see wheat sold at Rs 280 per kg, mutton at Rs 2,500, and chicken at Rs 950. We would definitely want to be with those looking for peace and prosperity.”
On what made him enter the electoral fray in the backdrop of the abrogation of J&K’s statehood and revocation of Article 370, Khan said, “Har cheez ka hal violence nahi hota, ye desh humara hai, humari galtiyon ko maaf karein. (Violence is not the solution to everything. This country is ours; forgive our mistakes).”
Invoking Urdu poet Muzaffar Razmi, who wrote in a couplet, “Lamhon ne khata ki thhi, sadiyon ne saza paayi hai. (Moments have sinned, centuries have been punished),” Khan said, “Humare lamho ne agar khata ki hai to hamari sadiyon ko saza na di jaye (If our moments have sinned, our centuries should not be punished). We want the country to progress and so should Jammu and Kashmir.”
And he is not the only one. At least 28 former militants and separatists and Jamaat-e-Islami-backed leaders are participating in the ongoing J&K polls, marking a major shift from when they boycotted polls. Former separatists Javed Hubbi, Sarjan Ahmad Wagay, Aga Muntazir Mehdi, former militant Farooq Ahmad (Saifullah Farooq), and former Jamaat-e-Islami leaders Talat Majid and Sayar Ahmed Reshi are among them. ThePrint spoke to some of them on the change in the J&K security situation.
Highlighting the shift on the ground, Altaf Bhat, the brother of the jailed leader Bashir Ahmad Bhat, said the valley is now peaceful. Kashmiris, he said, have left the days of ‘hartals (strikes)’ and stone-pelting, leading to school and university shutdowns, behind them.
Encouraged by this, Bhat is now contesting the polls as an Independent from Rajpora. “I was running a civil society organisation in Pulwama and heading that society when I realised that apart from terrorism, there is political terrorism. The National Conference (NC), the Congress, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are not doing the work of the people,” he explained.
Usman Majeed, the two-time Bandipora MLA who is contesting the seat again, wants to see more such candidates in the fray. Once a militant, he changed his path and has been contesting elections since 1996. And stories like his inspired people to leave behind the days of ‘hartals‘ and street protests, he said.
Echoing his sentiments, Khan said, “I want to appeal to the gun-wielding youth who are raising ‘Pakistan zindabad‘ & ‘Azaadi‘ slogans to enter electoral politics.”
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‘Emotional connect’ created by the candidates
In 1989, Farooq Ahmad Khan crossed the Leepa valley (part of PoK) and reached the terror camp in Garhi Dupatta with his group. That camp, Khan said, was where he first came across a “black, shiny AK-47”. It immediately made him feel strong, “empowered”, and “ready to conquer the world”.
The moment, however, was short-lived. After Khan returned to Srinagar in 1990, he landed in the security net with a few others in a 1991 anti-terror drive in the Munawarabad area. Khan, who has been slapped with the J&K Public Safety Act (PSA) multiple times since then, has spent over seven years in jail so far.
“Looking back, I can say that picking a gun up was childish. After the mass rigging in the 1987 elections, we were completely disillusioned. Imagine we were getting information that we were winning till 4 pm. But by 8 pm, they were saying we had lost the elections. Several youngsters who were part of the campaign (for Salahuddin) were picked up and tortured,” he said, recollecting the events.
Now, he is contesting on a Samajwadi Party ticket from Habba Kadal. Earlier in 2018, he unsuccessfully contested the Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) polls on a BJP ticket.
Altaf Ahmad Bhat said he was not directly involved in militancy. Bhat said his brother “majboori mai bandook uthaya (took up arms under compulsion)”, citing the “mass rigging” in the 1987 election as a turning point in their lives.
Political experts point out that the 2024 J&K polls are candidate-driven, so it is difficult to immediately gauge what impact candidates like Farooq Ahmad Khan will have. From the campaigns, it seems some of them pose a challenge to leaders of traditional parties.
For instance, Jamaat-backed, Independent candidate Sayar Ahmed Reshi had been pulling crowds in Kulgam, where Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader M.Y. Tarigami has won four successive assembly elections since 1996.
On 8 September, hundreds thronged a joint rally in Kulgam, where four Jamaat-backed candidates canvassed for the 42-year-old Reshi, who once headed Falah-e-Aam Trust, the education wing of the banned outfit in the district.
Another Independent candidate, who has created quite a buzz in Beerwah and Ganderbal constituencies, is incarcerated religious scholar Sarjan Ahmad Wagay, alias Sarjan Barkati. Barkati was arrested on 1 October 2016 for his role in the protests after militant Burhan Wani’s death. His daughter, Sugra Barkati, has been leading an emotional campaign in support of her father, drawing large crowds.
Elections, political commentator and senior journalist Ahmed Ali Fayyaz told ThePrint, are all about narrative building. “Why are separatists important in Kashmir elections? They do not constitute a majority. They have always won 1-2 seats and never 10 at any point. But, they are important for all political parties in elections because of the narrative they build.”
“Now, they are building the narrative on social media because the number of militants is fewer. Earlier, they used their militants to threaten people,” he added.
Winning chances of candidates
While Engineer Rashid’s Lok Sabha election campaign, run by his son as he languished in Tihar jail, made an emotional connection with people, the campaigns of the Independents this time may not have the same impact, political commentators and experts say.
“For an average Kashmiri, that such a huge number of separatists or Jamaat-backed candidates are contesting shows these separatists are permitted to contest the election, with the calculation that they will cut away votes from traditional political parties,” said journalist Fayyaz.
Others say the Jamaat decision to back candidates can be a tactical move to shed its separatist tag.
But only time will tell if the strategy will pay off or not, political scientist Noor Ahmad Baba said. People are thronging the rallies, but it is “difficult to read a Kashmiri mind”.
Baba said separatists, and particularly Jamaat, have been under tremendous pressure since 2019—jailed, harassed and their property confiscated in some cases. By participating in the J&K polls, they can be trying to show they have nothing to do with a separatist ideology to become a part of the mainstream again.
“The whole context of politics has changed post-2019. There has been tremendous pressure on some of these groups, and therefore, I think some of it is influencing their participation in the elections. Jamaat has not had a very successful electoral history. Let us see how it will unfold this time,” Baba said.
In Beerwah, Barkati has been doing well. With 12 candidates contesting the seat, the triangular fight features Engineer Rashid’s Awami Ittehad Party, the NC and Jamaat-backed Barkati, who emerged as a popular candidate during the poll campaign.
Journalist Fayyaz expressed scepticism about Barkati. Calling him the face of the 2016 Kashmir protests, the journalist said, “He raised slogans against India and in favour of Pakistan and motivated thousands of Kashmiri youth to pick up guns. It was because of his slogans that quite a large number of people became stone pelters and militants. Of the stone pelters, some lost eyesight. The people, who picked up guns inspired by him, were killed in encounters by the security forces.”
Fayyaz pointed out that Jamaat, in the past, has participated in elections when the Congress party used it as a bulwark against Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah’s plebiscite demand from 1953 to 1975. “During that period, the Congress needed a local political party to neutralise Sheikh Abdullah’s influence in Kashmir. So, they promoted and projected Jamaat-e-Islami. It contested the Panchayat elections of 1969, the LS elections of 1971, and the assembly elections of 1972 under the complete patronage of the Congress party.”
“It again participated in elections after 1977, but that was not under the patronage of Congress. Out of 76 seats, it won only 1,” he said.
