Waheed Parra: PDP Youth Leader To Contest From Home Turf Pulwama (image:instagram.com/waheedpara_)

Waheed-ur-Rehman Parra, youth wing president of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) found recognition after 2013 when he officially joined the party. A known figure in television debates and discussions, he started his political career during the 2002 assembly elections working as a poll agent for the party when he was not eligible to vote. He rose through ranks soon for his active role in resolving conflict around Jammu and Kashmir, and involving youth in democratic process – particularly bringing them to vote in the 2014 Assembly elections.

Parra hails from Naira, a village in south Kashmir’s volatile Pulwama district. In the forthcoming Assembly elections, he is contesting from Pulwama assembly segment. He is not a new face in electoral battlefield. In 2020, he won the District Development Council (DDC) election from his home turf, Pulwama. During the Lok Sabha election earlier this year, he unsuccessfully contested from Srinagar constituency and received 1,68,450 votes.

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Parra served as secretary of Jammu and Kashmir Sports Council from 2016 to 2018 and during his term he was instrumental in organising sporting events in every corner of the erstwhile Jammu and Kashmir state and in June 2018, Parra conducted a sports conclave comprising 3,000 young people in Srinagar, where defence minister Rajnath Singh lauded him for his effort to make changes in youth attitude through sport. He has also served as a political analyst to late PDP founder and former chief minister of J&K Mufti Mohammad Sayeed.

Parra is a staunch advocate of people’s rights and self-representation and his efforts in strengthening democracy and peace in Kashmir is also much-appreciated. However, on November 25, 2020 Parra was arrested under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) in an alleged conspiracy to support the Hizbul Mujahideen terror group. He was first arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and then by the State Investigation Agency (SIA). While in imprisonment, Parra won the DDC elections as his family campaigned on his behalf. On May 25, 2022, after 18 months he got release from jail.

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A postgraduate in International Relations—Peace and Conflict studies, he has received a peace scholarship by the SIT Graduate Institute, Vermont USA in 2012. His grandfather was close to Mufti Muhammad Sayed. Meanwhile, Parra is considered a close confidant of his daughter, now party chief and another former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti. In 2023, Parra was chosen as the Yale Peace Fellow; but the Indian government denied him a passport, and it prevented him from pursuing the fellowship.