Srinagar: The 2011 Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru’s elder brother Ajaz Ahmad Guru will contest the assembly elections as an independent from the Sopore assembly segment.
Ajaz Guru, who took voluntary retirement from the animal husbandry department in 2014, is currently working as a contractor and will submit his form either on Tuesday or Wednesday. The last day for filing the nomination is Thursday.
Aijaz, 58, said he was going to contest elections as an independent candidate, adding, “When everyone is contesting elections why shouldn’t I. I have a different ideology than my brother but I will fight for those youths who have been arrested in fabricated cases by police including my son Shoiab who was arrested nine months ago by police in a fabricated case.”
He said his son was languishing in jail on false charges before citing the recent victory of Baramulla MP Engineer Rashid. “When Engineer Rashid’s son Abrar Rashid campaigned for his father. Why can’t I campaign for my son who is studying in Pune. I will prove my son didn’t do anything wrong,” he said, adding that he will highlight the cases of other innocent people who are in jail on false charges.
Afzal Guru was hanged and buried in Tihar on February 9, 2013, after being convicted for the 2001 attack on Parliament. He was hanged for his role, triggering mass protests in the Valley. His body was not handed over to his family in north Kashmir’s Sopore town and was instead buried inside the jail premises. Activists and people in Kashmir have been critical of the hanging.
Afzal is survived by his wife who live separately in Baramulla town.
Ajaz Guru, however, said he won’t seek votes in the name of his brother. “My ideology is different. I believe that the people of Kashmir were betrayed by every political leader, some in the name of autonomy, self rule, and some in the name ‘Azadi’. Everybody betrayed the people of Kashmir,” he said.
Sopore was considered a stronghold of separatist leader and Jamaat ideologue Syed Ali Geelani, and voters stayed away from polling in the past few decades. That changed in the recent Lok Sabha elections, with more than 44% registering their choice in the Sopore assembly segment. In 2014, Sopore elected Congress candidate Haji Rashid amid low voting. This time, around a dozen locals have already expressed their desire to contest the elections.