Srinagar: The internal rift within the banned Jamaat-e-Islami Jammu and Kashmir has widened, with former Jamaat chief Ghulam Mohammad Bhat distancing the organisation from the Justice and Development Front (JDF), while PDP president Mehbooba Mufti and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq have called for due process in dealing with Jamaat-linked properties and institutions.
The dispute has brought into the open competing claims over the political representation and institutional legacy of Jamaat-e-Islami, with Bhat questioning the JDF’s claim to represent the organisation and raising concerns over Jamaat-linked properties. The JDF, which emerged from a Jamaat-linked faction and participated in the 2024 Assembly elections, has rejected the allegations.
Bhat, who served as Jamaat chief for three terms, has said that Jamaat has no links with any political party and that the organisation accepted the ban imposed on it and would pursue legal recourse rather than violate the law or launch any agitation.
He has also alleged that the JDF was attempting to take over properties and institutions associated with Jamaat, most of which, according to him, have been attached by authorities under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
The JDF has rejected the allegations, with its leaders maintaining that its political activities were undertaken through constitutional and democratic means. JDF representatives have also said that the organisation’s political platform was created after approval from Jamaat’s central advisory body in 2024.
The dispute has drawn political intervention from PDP president Mehbooba Mufti, who has called for restraint in dealing with attached Jamaat properties and opposed any coercive or irreversible action.
Mirwaiz Umar Farooq has also called on the Centre to reconsider its policy of banning social and political organisations in Jammu and Kashmir, saying properties and institutions attached under the law should be dealt with in accordance with judicial process.
The controversy has gained renewed significance following recent property-attachment action in north Kashmir. Authorities have maintained that such action is being taken under the provisions of the UAPA and through the prescribed legal procedure.
Jamaat-e-Islami Jammu and Kashmir was declared an unlawful association by the Centre in February 2019, with the ban subsequently extended in February 2024. The Ministry of Home Affairs records Jamaat among organisations declared unlawful under the UAPA.
The JDF, meanwhile, emerged as a political platform associated with a faction of Jamaat and contested the 2024 Assembly elections, while the organisation’s former leadership has maintained that Jamaat itself has not entered electoral politics.
The latest developments have therefore opened a wider debate over who represents Jamaat’s political and institutional legacy, how its properties and institutions should be dealt with while the ban remains in force, and whether those claiming to represent its social constituency should be given political space. [KNT]
