Jailed separatist cleric Sarjan Barkati’s nomination among 35 rejected

The nomination form of jailed cleric known for his pro-Azadi sloganeering, Sarjan Ahmad Wagay, alias Sarjan Barkati, was among those rejected by the election authorities during scrutiny, officials said on Wednesday.

Barkati, a cleric known for leading protests against the killing of Hizb commander Burhan Wani in 2016, is currently in jail for illegal fund-raising to allegedly propagate radicalism. He had filed his nomination for Zainapora seat in Shopian through his daughter Sughra Barkat on Tuesday.

Officials said during the scrutiny of the nomination papers filed by 279 candidates, candidature of 244 candidates was found valid as per the guidelines of the Election Commission of India, while nomination papers of 35 candidates, which were found invalid, were rejected.

People’s Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti wanted the Election Commission of India to offer clarity on the rejection of Barkati’s papers.

“Sorry to hear about the rejection of the assembly nomination form of Sarjan Barkati from Zainpora. The Election Commissioner must make the reasons public for this decision. Democracy is a battle of ideas and everyone should be given a chance to participate in it,” she said.

As many as 279 candidates have filed their nomination papers across 24 Assembly Constituencies (ACs) of seven districts of Jammu and Kashmir which are going to polling in the first phase of polls on September 18.

“The form of Sarjan Barkati was not filled properly,” Shopian deputy commissioner and district election officer Faz Lul Haseeb said.

The residents of his hometown Reban area were aghast over the rejection of his form, with a resident of Zainapora saying, “He may have made mistakes in the past and now if he wanted to enter into the fold of democracy why was he rejected? We all had hoped that he would succeed. We appeal to the government to give him a chance.”

So far, officials said the nomination papers of 26 candidates have been rejected and 168 accepted during scrutiny while the process of checking the rest of documents was still going on.

Barkati was the first jailed separatist leader to have filed nomination papers in the first phase of elections which will be held on September 18. His daughter, Sughra Barkati, filed nominations on his behalf. Already many people with separatist backgrounds have decided to take the plunge into the electoral process this year as Independent candidates.

Since October 2016, Barkati has been mostly in jail. He was arrested on October 1, 2016 under Public Safety Act after the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani against which he gave many speeches and sang “pro-Azadi” rhythmic slogans getting the name “Azadi Chacha” or pied-piper. Police said that Sarjan Barkati was a central figure in “orchestrating large-scale protests, rallies, and clashes with security forces in 2016, for which more than 30 FIRs were registered against him in various police stations of the Valley.”

He was released in October 2020 and then again arrested in August 2023 by Kashmir State Investigation Agency for allegedly orchestrating a fund-raising campaign and raising campaign and raising crores. His wife has also been in jail in connection with the case.