Srinagar: It was the autumn of 1989. The Chinar trees gradually turned from lush green into vibrant red, yellow, and orange. As the Kashmir valley welcomed fall, a young Farooq Ahmad Khan, then in his early twenties, walked out of his home in the Lal Chowk area of Srinagar. He left behind joyful memories of his childhood and adolescence during the golden season, aspiring to “bring change”.
Disillusioned by “mass rigging” in the 1987 Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) elections, Farooq Ahmad Khan decided to pick up arms for “Azaadi”. Khan was a polling agent for Syed Salahuddin, who unsuccessfully contested that year as a candidate for the Muslim United Front (MUF) from Amira Kadal in the heart of Srinagar. Two years later, Khan left for Pakistan with some of his friends to train to serve as divisional commander of the now-banned Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF). Syed Salahuddin became the chief of Hizbul Mujahideen.
Over the last three decades, Khan has undergone a remarkable transformation. He has abandoned his secessionist views and now pledges his allegiance to the Indian Constitution. He has renounced the idea of ‘Azad Kashmir‘ and asserts that the region is an integral part of India. He even advocates for the merger of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) with India.
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.
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Political slugfest over the candidates
A senior security officer told ThePrint that former militants and separatists have sporadically contested elections in J&K in the past. However, what distinguishes the polls this time is not only how many of them are contesting but also that many are contesting as a bloc, such as the candidates backed by Jamaat or under the banner of the Awami Ittehad Party (AIP). “This is probably the first time in the last 30-odd years that they are contesting the elections as a bloc…though as Independents only,” the officer said.
Journalist Fayyaz agreed that more separatists are participating this time than in the past. Looking back, Fayyaz shared the example of Kuka Parray of the J&K Awami League, who started as a militant but later became the ‘king’ of the J&K counterinsurgency movement. Parray became an MLA, but suspected Hizb-ul militants killed him in an ambush in 2003.
“Parray was the counterinsurgency king of Kashmir. In 1995-96, he contested elections. His party was the Awami League, not a recognised political party. So, leaders were contesting elections as Independents. They first did it in the 1996 Lok Sabha elections and then in the 1996 assembly polls. They were of the separatist, militant background.”
He said five-six separatists joined the mainstream politics in J&K, but most are no more. “They were later on killed by militants.”
The presence of former separatists has been dominating conversations in political circles, with many traditional political parties questioning their intent.
On 4 September, days before the first phase of elections in J&K, BJP in-charge Ram Madhav attacked the NC and the PDP, saying both parties are garnering public support using former militants.
“I have information that ex-militants are openly campaigning for the NC and PDP candidates. The people will have to defeat the parties that want to take Jammu and Kashmir back to its bad days and support new leadership which wants peace and progress,” Madhav told reporters, referring to the “Abdullahs and Muftis”.
The comment drew a prompt reaction, with NC’s Omar Abdullah taking a jibe at the BJP: “Even that we know who the Independents are, who are being fielded in this election, and who will benefit from their fighting, I think it is a bit rich of Ram Madhav to say that the NC is taking benefit from ex-militants. Show us where?”
Good to bad implications for Kashmir
As political parties fight it out, many in the political and security spheres have a word of caution to share. Counterterrorism expert Ajay Sahni said it is important to know the intent of the former separatist, militant or Jamaat-backed candidates.
“There are two factors. What is their intention? And what are the current affiliations of these individuals? If they are in a good place, looking to rejoin the democratic process, there would be limited or no problems at all,” Sahni told ThePrint.
“But if most remain committed to their ideologies of extremism, with a significant number entering the assembly, they are certainly likely to cause both actual disruption and use the opportunity to propagate and forward their ideological agenda,” he added.
Journalist Fayyaz, who has covered several elections in J&K, is critical of Jamaat’s entry. He said Jamaat-e-Islami, in today’s “changed scenario”, would like to paint a picture that it did not support militancy, “but they were part and parcel of the pro-Pakistan politics in Kashmir”.
Sahni supported his views, saying that though the mainstreaming of separatist organisations is crucial, bypassing the manner to do that is risky. “At some stage, you will have to reopen political processes. My objection to what is happening right now is that it is happening haphazardly, and the motives are questionable,” Sahni said.
Jamaat-e-Islami Jammu and Kashmir is a problematic group because it has affiliations with JeI Pakistan, he said. “If these individuals maintain their affiliations, they are likely to be problematic because that is a divisive ideology—it is an ideology that separates them from India.”
However, willing to give them the benefit of the doubt, Sahni said, “We have records all over the country of ex-militants joining the democratic process and then doing no significant harm.”
Sahni also pointed out that former militants, who contested in the past, displayed signs that they opposed extremism, something not visible today. “Ex-militants who joined politics in the past were people who had crossed over and had been supporting the security forces in anti-terrorism campaigns. It was clear. Their own lives were under threat. Kuka Parray eventually got killed… They had given up altogether—the present cases do not demonstrate that,” he said.
Since the number of separatist, militant or Jamaat-backed candidates is high, “they might coalesce into a group or a party later”, Sahni said. But, “none of these problems is such that they can’t be handled”, he said, asserting that “J&K will not return to any situation of the early 2000s or 1990s”.
Now, the Jamaat also has the support of Lok Sabha member Engineer Rashid’s AIP. Former Jamaat members and the AIP are fighting the assembly polls in a strategic alliance.
Explaining what the entry of the AIP in Kashmir politics means as he took a walk down memory lane, Fayyaz pointed out that after militancy started in 1989, political leader Abdul Ghani Lone shifted to the separatists in 1993. When the Hurriyat Conference was formed, he made his People’s Conference its part. “Among the prominent persons within Ghani Lone’s People’s Conference was Engineer Rashid (at that time known as SA Rashid, short for Sheikh Abdullah Rashid),” he said.
He pointed out that Rashid would write columns in local newspapers, not directly in favour of ‘Azaadi’, but his tone and tenor were separatist.
There were two schools of thought among the separatists. “A group wanted Kashmir’s separation from India and Independence—the most important among them was JKLF. The People’s Conference was one of them,” he said.
The other group was led by Syed Ali Shah Geelani, who later made his own Hurriyat Conference, and they were pro-Pakistan. The “most important outfit” in the pro-Pakistan Hurriyat Conference was Jamaat, Fayyaz said, adding that that is one of the reasons that the outfit cannot be taken at face value.
Sounding alarm bells, Fayyaz said, “The recruitment that had stopped for militants may start again. Their narrative slowly may get strengthened again. We have apprehension that 2025 will be a bit different from 2024.”
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Independents, or ‘proxies of BJP’?
Several political parties and leaders, including former chief ministers Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti, have questioned the entry of Jamaat-backed candidates. Among them, many have labelled such candidates “proxies of BJP”—a charge denied by them.
Aijaz Ahmad Mir, the Jamaat-backed Independent candidate who fought from Zainapora, was detained by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) once. Later in 2014, he won Zainapora (then known as Wachi) on a PDP ticket, defeating NC’s Showkat Hussain Ganai.
This time was different. “NC and PDP tried to discredit me by calling a proxy candidate of the BJP and RSS. But I have the support of the people,” Mir told ThePrint. “They even called Engineer Rashid a proxy candidate. They think only they have the right to contest elections and only a few political parties have the right. Jamaat has a cadre and a big structure, so we don’t need to be anyone’s proxy.”
Counterterrorism expert Ajay Sahni, on the other hand, lent support to the theory. The Independents, if they “continue to sort of retain their loyalties” to their ideological grouping, with the aim of “undermining the established political parties”, will serve no purpose in Kashmir’s political landscape, he said.
He also called out the BJP for “trying to split the votes”. “That is the only motivation that the Centre had. I won’t even say Centre (but) the ruling party at the Centre. What they want to do is to undermine NC, PDP, and Congress. They are trying to split up the votes and get some other representation.”
Another Srinagar-based political expert pointed out that Kashmiris understand that the former separatist or militant candidates are “simple pawns in the hands of the BJP” and that the party is using them to serve a political agenda.
What candidates want
Usman Majeed left militancy in the mid-90s and joined the Kukka Parray-led Ikhwan ul Muslimeen, the valley’s first counterterror militia. Once trained in Pakistan, Majeed later joined Altaf Bukhari’s Apni Party and became a minister. Now, he has left the party and is fighting as an Independent.
“After I joined counterinsurgency, I survived several terror attacks. I have been contesting the elections since 1996. I had also contested in 2014 and became an MLA,” said Majeed.
The biggest difference between the 2014 and 2024 elections is that before, the region was a state and Article 370 was in place, he said, stressing that the issue currently is attaining statehood as it is “impossible” to restore Article 370.
Another agenda of Independent candidates is to ensure amnesty for young people “languishing” in jails over “frivolous” charges—what traditional parties have also promised.
“I was active in the 1990 students liberation front, went across, got arms training, and after realising what we are doing is wrong, we formed a group, which fought terrorism, with the help of security forces… Later, we thought it is important to change things politically, and since 1996, I have been in mainstream politics,” Majeed told ThePrint.
The Independent candidates differ from the traditional parties in their view on Article 370. While both NC and PDP have promised to bring back Article 370, Altaf Bhat called it a “sookha ped jisko BJP ne dhakka diya aur wo gir gaya (a dried-up tree that fell once the BJP tugged at it”. “Article 370 was not for the normal people but was in the interest of the dynastic political parties,” said Bhat.
“These elections are happening after 10 years… Our youth was getting wasted. They had taken solace in drugs. People are happy. Whichever party may come to power, but people of Kashmir are out of depression,” said Bhat, who holds a diploma in mechanical engineering and has served as a deputy manager in a company in Srinagar.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)