Change in stance by banned JeI members significant: Omar Abdullah

Anantnag, Aug 27: Terming the change in stance by some members of banned Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI) by contesting the assembly polls as a significant development, former Chief Minister and National Conference (NC) Vice President Omar Abdullah on Tuesday said that they have moved from considering elections as “haram” to now seeing them as “halal.”

“We were previously told that elections were haram. Now, they are considered as halal, and there is talk of everyone participating in them,” Omar told reporters in south Kashmir’s Anantnag district where he was accompanying his senior party leaders Altaf Ahmad Kaloo and Bashir Ahmad Veeri, who submitted their nomination papers from Pahalgam and Bijbehara constituencies respectively.

“The shift in their political thinking is not bad. We even hoped that the ban imposed on their organisation would be revoked so they could contest elections on their own symbol, but unfortunately it did not happen,” he said.

In response to a question that the former Jamaat leaders might support PC and AIP, Omar said that PC has direct ties with the BJP.

“And it implies that if they help the PC, they are helping the BJP,” Omar said.

He said that if they include AIP in it, it will also raise questions on it.