Re-entering electoral politics after a gap of 37 years, several activists of the banned Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI) on Tuesday filed their nomination papers as independent candidates for the first phase of the assembly elections that are being held after 10 years in Jammu and Kashmir.

The JeI contested the assembly elections till 1987 but later boycotted the polls from 1993 as they were part of the pro-Pakistan Hurriyat Conference that advocated poll boycott.

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Moreover, the JeI was banned by the Home Ministry in 2019 when the government cracked down at separatist elements in J&K. As such its activists are barred from taking part in any election. In the 1972 assembly elections, JeI won five seats out of the 21 candidates it fielded.

The banned JeI leadership had announced its willingness to participate in the election process during the recent Lok Sabha polls when a former general secretary of the outfit Ghulam Qadir Wani was seen casting his vote for the Srinagar Lok Sabha constituency along with many other JeI activists.

Talat Majeed, former Ameer (chief) of Jei, filed his nomination papers from south Kashmir’s Pulwama constituency as an independent candidate backed by the JeI.

After filing his nomination papers, Majid said: “I was a government employee in the agriculture sector. When I started thinking about politics, I thought that we should see the scenario of Kashmir through a geopolitical lens. In 2014, I expressed my wish to be in politics. The day I joined politics, I made it clear that be it Jamaat-e-Islami or Hurriyat Conference, both have an important role to play.”

“When you talk about Kashmir, you can’t ignore the geopolitical relevance it has. We all, Kashmiris should look towards the future. We should look towards the things that we didn’t get and also towards the things that we had but we lost them,” he added.

Majeed said that after pondering over the changing geo-political scenario since 2008, he felt the need to shun some of the past “rigidities”.

Sayar Ahmad Reshi, another former JeI leader, is also contesting the elections from south Kashmir’s Kulgam Assembly seat.

Reshi appealed to the people to vote according to their conscience. “It is up to Allah to bless or disgrace a person, but I will appeal to people to vote as per their conscience,” he said, adding “we will launch a historic movement for reforms.”

Sarjan Barkati, who shot to prominence during the turmoil which erupted following the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani in 2016, will be contesting from south Kashmir’s Shopian district. His daughter, Sugra Barkati, filed the nomination papers on behalf of her father, who is in jail on terror charges.

Barkati is known as “Azadi Chacha” and his campaign will be spearheaded by his daughter.

Welcoming the decision of JeI activists to contest the election, National Conference chief Dr. Farooq Abdullah said; “We are happy that candidates of Jamaat-e-Islami are participating in this election, they should come forward and make Jammu Kashmir better.”

Sajad Lone, People’s Conference chief, referred to members of the Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI) as “victims” and said they have been to jail and have shared cells with his father, Abdul Ghani Lone, who was assassinated in Srinagar on 21 May 2002.