Srinagar: Two women from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, married to former militants, have won panchayat posts in northern Kashmir’s Kupwara district.
Arifa and Dilshada arrived in Kashmir six years ago, after marrying former militants who had crossed the Line of Control (LoC) for arms training. Their husbands later gave up arms and returned to the Valley along with their families, taking the Nepal route.
On Tuesday, both women, in their 30s, were elated to learn about their electoral victory. “Both the women have won the election uncontested. One of them has in fact won both the panch and sarpanch seats she was contesting on,” a senior official in district administration told The Wire, adding that they have all the required documents, including voter identity cards, to contest elections.
Double win for Arifa
A resident of Pallandari town in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan-controlled Kashmir, 34-year-old Asifa had married Ghulam Mohammad Mir of Khumriyal in 2006 – five years after Mir had crossed the LoC for arms training. “He (Mir) was working as an auto driver in Muzaffarbad when he first met Arifa through her cousin who was married to another Kashmiri, also a former militant,” a family member said.
According to him, Arifa’s cousin discussed Mir’s marriage proposal with her family, who agreed. Six years later, the couple, along with their two children, returned to Kashmir using the Nepal route, under a rehabilitation programme for former militants announced by former chief minister Omar Abdullah in 2010.
Once back in his native village, Mir surrendered before the state police. Once his detention period was over, Mir started working as a driver to earn a living for the family, while Arifa would take care of their children. Today, she is mother of four.
When the government announced the panchayat polls, villagers and family members motivated Arifa to contest from Khumriyal. She agreed and filed nomination papers for the panch and sarpanch seats.
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On Tuesday morning, the family found out from the district authorities that Arifa won both seats uncontested. The family has attributed their daughter-in-law’s victory to unflinching support from the entire village, saying that’s why nobody stood against her in the polls.
As the news about Arifa’s win spread, media personnel from the district thronged to her house, but she and her family stayed away from the media. The state government has maintained secrecy around the elections, scheduled to begin from the third week of November, amid looming militant threats. The recently held municipal polls too were held under secrecy.
Dilshada’s victory
Dilshada, also from Muzaffarbad, had married a man from Kupwara’s Handwara town, Mohammad Yusuf, who had crossed over to Pakistan-controlled Kashmir for arms training.
Dilshada was brought up in Karachi before she returned to her home and married Yusuf from Prangro village in late 2000.
Like Arifa and her family, Dilshada and her husband too returned to Kashmir in 2012 with their three children, under the rehabilitation policy. While Yusuf owns a shop in the village, Dilshada, a mother of five now, decided to contest the polls. She too has been elected unopposed.
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The nine-phase panchayat elections are being held in Jammu and Kashmir after a gap of seven years. Last time the polls had seen around 80% voter participation. But, like the civic body elections, the Valley is likely to witness low participation in this electoral exercise as militants have warned people to stay away from polls.
There are a total of 35,096 panch and sarpanch constituencies across Jammu and Kashmir, of which 18,785 segments are in Kashmir. At least 40 sarpanchs and 669 ward panchs, including Arifa and Dilshada, have been declared winners uncontested in Kupwara for three of the four phases for which nominations have been filed till date.
The rehabilitation programme
In 2010, the state government led by Omar Abdullah cleared a policy for the rehabilitation of former militants who had crossed the LoC for arms training between 1989 and 2009, but had later given up arms due to a “change of heart” and were willing to return to the state.
Under the policy, four routes – JCP, Wagah/Attari, Salamabad/Chakkan-da-Bagh crossing on the Line of Control and Indira Gandhi International Airport – were notified for return. The policy does not recognise Nepal as a legal route for the return of ex-militants.
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However, since 2010, most ex-militants and their families have preferred the Nepal route to return to Kashmir. At least 489 men along with their wives and children have returned from Pakistan/Pakistan-occupied Kashmir via the Nepal route between 2003 and May 22, 2016, the government informed the assembly in January 2016. But these families, as per the laid down procedures under the policy, are “not entitled to any benefits as they haven’t taking any of the four identified routes to return to Kashmir”.
Mudasir Ahmad is a Srinagar-based reporter.