Sarjan Barkati: The Jailed Separatist In The Fray (image: x.com/Ashraf__Mir)

Days after his nomination was rejected from the Zainapora constituency due to incomplete documentation, jailed cleric and separatist leader Sarjan Ahmad Wagay, alias Sarjan Barkati, filed his nominations from the Ganderbal and Beerwah Assembly segments as an independent candidate.

In Ganderbal, he will be facing National Conference (NC) vice president and former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and Altaf Bukhari‘s Apni Party extended support to him in Beerwah.

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Barkati is well known as the face of the 2016 protest in Kashmir Valley, following the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani. The protest continued for three months, and he attained quick fame through his peculiar way of sloganeering, which even earned him the title “freedom chacha.” Barkati headed most of the protest rallies in Shopian and Kulgam, and the police have registered 30 cases against him over the rallies. In his speeches, he openly exhorted the youth to pick up guns, urging them to become suicide bombers, NDTV reports.

Though Barkati managed to evade multiple arrest attempts by the police, in October 2016, he was arrested and booked under the Public Safety Act (PSA). He was released two years later but was again imprisoned under the PSA. In November 2022, he got release. But, citing his alleged involvement in a terror-funding case, he was booked under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) by the State Investigation Agency (SIA) in August 2023. Later, his wife was also arrested.

Since jailed separatist leader Engineer Rashid secured a massive victory in the recently held Lok Sabha elections in Baramulla, defeating Omar Abdullah and Peoples Conference (PC) president Sajad Lone, Barkati and his family aim to recreate the same hoping that emotional votes are in his favour. Similar to Rashid’s elder son Abrar Rashid, who made active election campaigns for his father in the Lok Sabha polls focusing on his release, Barkati’s daughter Sugraa is involved in the election activities and is seeking villagers’ support for her father.

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Sugraa filed the nomination papers on his father’s behalf.  She said: “If the government releases my parents, we will refrain from contesting the assembly elections, as our primary goal is to secure their release, which is the reason we are participating in these elections,” Rising Kashmir reports. She has also attacked Engineer Rashid’s Awami Ittehad Party (AIP) for not giving her family any support “in time of need.”