Former J&K separatists float political group to replicate Engineer Rashid's poll success

Several former militants and separatists have come together in poll-bound Jammu and Kashmir to float a political group, Tahreek-e-Awam, looking to replicate the success of Baramulla MP Sheikh Abdul Rashid, better known as Engineer Rashid, The Times of India has reported.

They will contest the election as independents under the banner of Tahreek-e-Awam (the Movement for the People), whose members include Ajaz Ahmad Guru, brother of Afzal Guru who was convicted in the 2001 Parliament attack and awarded the death penalty. He was executed in 2013.

Sarjan Barkati is another member of the outfit. Barkati is in a Srinagar jail for organising stone-throwing protests in 2016 following the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani, the report said.

Former members of proscribed J&K Jamaat-e-Islami, too, are a part of the fledgling outfit.

Moneycontrol couldn't verify the report independently.

The report cited sources as saying that Engineer Rashid’s recent Lok Sabha win inspired the separatists to come together to contest the first assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir following the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019.

Rashid, who is in the Delhi’s Tihar Jail on charges of funding terror, defeated National Conference leader Omar Abdullah and People’s Conference president Sajad Gani Lone in the Lok Sabha election. He was given parole to take oath as a Member of Parliament.

Rashid’s Awami Ittehad Party has announced its first list of 10 candidates and reports say regional parties are keen to tie-up with him for the assembly elections being held in three phases.

The first phase of voting will be on September 18, second on September 25 and then October 1. The votes will be counted on October 4.