New Delhi: Banned under the anti-terror law in 2019, the influential pro-Pakistan outfit Jamaat-e-Islami Jammu and Kashmir’s (JIJK) announcement that it was willing to contest the election in J&K seems to be the culmination of a long-drawn process to get the socio-political outfit into the mainstream of Indian politics.
“We didn’t boycott any election. We stayed away from the election because of the situation (in Kashmir),” former chief of Jamaat-e-Islami Ghulam Qadir Wani, who voted in Lok Sabha election for Srinagar constituency, announced on Wednesday, May 16.
“We are holding talks with the centre. If the ban on Jamaat is revoked, we will participate in the (upcoming assembly) election”.
The cadre-based outfit, which is widely believed to be the ideological fountainhead of Hizbul Mujahideen, Kashmir’s largest militant group, was banned on February 28, 2019, two weeks after the deadly suicide attack in south Kashmir’s Pulwama district killed over 40 Central Reserve Police Force personnel and injured more than four dozen personnel.
Wani, who is also the panel head of the Jamaat, claimed that the decision to contest the election was taken after a crucial meeting of the group’s Majlis-e-Shoura or decision-making body, “We are committed to participate in the democratic processes if the ban on Jamaat is lifted,” he said.
Also read: In J&K, Jamaat-e-Islami Has Been Restricted for 50 Years
‘Press statement’ differs
However, a press statement by Jamaat-e-Islami Jammu and Kashmir which circulated on social media, rejected Wani’s claim that the decision on elections was taken after the consultative meeting of Majlis-e-Shoura, stating that the quorum for taking such a decision was incomplete, “Whatever Wani has said is his personal opinion,” the statement in Urdu said.
The Wire couldn’t verify the authenticity of the statement which was issued by the banned outfit’s ‘Srinagar-based spokesperson’.
Wani’s announcement coincides with the visit of the Union Home Minister Amit Shah to Kashmir who is set to arrive in Srinagar on Thursday, May 16 in the midst of the ongoing Lok Sabha election. A local news agency reported that Shah is scheduled to meet various delegations in Srinagar, including some civil society members, the BJP workers and activists.
Some unconfirmed reports also suggested that some leaders of Jamaat in Kashmir could also meet Shah. However, The Wire couldn’t immediately verify these reports. In a first, Wani, however, said that the workers of Jamaat participated in the ongoing Lok Sabha election in Jammu and Kashmir.
‘It is a good thing’
Former J&K Chief Minister Omar Abdullah welcomed Wani’s announcement and urged the Home Minister to enable the outfit to participate in the upcoming assembly elections by revoking the ban, “It is a good thing. Let them participate in the election. Jamaat has helped various candidates and parties in J&K at the time of the elections. Now it will be better if the outfit works for itself rather than for others,” he said.
While the Jamaat, which has about 6000 members in Jammu and Kashmir, has been banned twice in the past – once by the Indira Gandhi government in 1975 and also from 1990 to 1995 after the eruption of armed insurgency in Kashmir, the union government’s decision to declare the outfit as an “unlawful association” in 2019 was followed by a series of raids and arrests.
The action by the union government crippled the outfit which is involved in social and religious activities, including in the sphere of education, charity, relief work and other social causes. Following the ban, a number of Jamaat-run schools were closed by J&K administration and property worth hundreds of crores owned by the outfit was seized under the anti-terror law.
Reports said that more than 300 Jamaat members, including its top leaders, were arrested under preventive detention laws after the BJP’s big move on J&K in 2019.
According to political analysts, the BJP-led union government’s crackdown on the Jamaat was driven in part by its belief that the outfit, which has in the past advocated for the resolution of the Kashmir issue as per the resolutions of the United Nations, is part of the problem in Jammu and Kashmir. Many analysts however argue that the government exaggerated the influence of Jamaat in J&K.
Also read: Why a J&K Court Struck Down a DM’s Order Freezing Jamaat-e-Islami Leader’s Account
‘Elections a tool’
One of the oldest political outfits in Kashmir which draws its inspiration from Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan founder Abu Ala Maududi, JIJK violated its own constitution, which was drafted in 1952, by contesting elections in J&K from 1965 to 1987 under the auspices of Indian Constitution, even though the outfit calls for the implementation of the UN resolutions on Kashmir.
“It (participation in election) was done for the fulfilment of the larger Islamisation project. Elections were used as a tool to expand the base (of Jamaat) to reach out to more and more sections of people,” Dr Manzoor Ahmad wrote in a research paper published in 2021 by the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses.
The outfit reached its peak in the 1972 assembly election when it won five seats. Among those elected was the veteran Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani who would greatly influence the political landscape of Jammu and Kashmir in coming years. The outfit has in the past supported the Peoples Democratic Party in elections.
Efforts
After floating a new political outfit in 2020, the BJP’s ally and president of J&K Apni Party, Altaf Bukhari, attempted to reach out to the Jamaat. Sources said that Bukhari may have contacted Jamaat leaders with the approval of the saffron party to get them into the mainstream fold. In February this year, Bukhari appealed to the Jamaat members to stay away from politics and focus on their religious duties. In October last year, a prominent Jamaat member joined the Apni Party.
Jamaat was an important outfit in Muslim United Front (MUF), a conglomerate of political parties, social groups and individuals which took on the National Conference (NC) in the controversial 1987 assembly elections in J&K. The election was allegedly rigged and the NC was declared winner, triggering anger among the MUF supporters, some of whom went on to join militancy in the coming years.
With the new move, analysts believe that the Jamaat is likely to suffer from fissures in coming weeks. The unverified press statement issued by the Jamaat spokesperson quoted above signals the coming of troubles for one of the largest socio-political outfits in Jammu and Kashmir. However, analysts believe that the ban on Jamaat, which was extended for five years in February this year, is unlikely to be lifted very soon.
