Srinagar- In a significant development, the banned Jama’at-e-Islami Kashmir Wednesday said that it was ready to contest polls if Centre would lift the ban on it.
The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) imposed a ban on JeI in 2019 , post Article 370 roll back, terming the organization as “anti national.” Talking to reporters here, JeI’s panel head Ghulam Qadir Wani of Gussu, Pulwama, said that the members of Jama’at (JeI) casted their votes in the recent Lok Sabha polls.
Wani was seen casting vote in the May 13 polls for Srinagar Lok Sabha polls.
“We will try to contest polls in the upcoming Assembly polls slated for September this year,” said Wani while talking to media persons, adding that JeI always believed in democratic process. “We will field our own candidates if Centre revokes the ban on us. There are other issues but revocation of ban is the first pre-condition to join the poll fray,” Wani said.
He said socio-religious reforms would be the poll plank of JeI besides drug abuse and growing immortality.
Wani said a crucial session of JeI’s Majlis-e Shura was held and a decision was taken to contest polls. “We never changed our stance as we believe in democracy,” he said. In reply to a query, why JeI members boycotted polls in the past, he said when nobody voted, JeI followed suit. “There was a pressure and threat as well,” he said
The organisation has not participated in any election since 1987.
Jama’at-e-Islami was a part of the Muslim Mutahida Mahaz (Muslim United Front or MUF) that participated in the 1987 elections against the National Conference (NC). The election was rigged and NC was declared winner. The rigging created huge resentment among the young supporters of MUF which manifested in militancy a year later. In the early 90s, MUF leader Peer Muhammad Yousuf crossed the LoC and went on to lead the Hizbul Mujahideen as Syed Salahuddin.
Under the influence of hardline leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani, the Jamaat was a key player in the formation of separatist amalgam Hurriyat Conference in 1993.
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