Lone sets up new alliance with Jamaat 'proxy', speaks of 'shared pain'

Srinagar: People’s Conference MLA Sajad Lone on Monday led two other groups, one of them a suspected proxy of the banned Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI), to form a new political alliance, pitching it as a movement framed “around a shared experience of suffering”. The alliance’s top goals include restoration of Article 370 and full J&K statehood .

The formation is named Peoples’ Alliance for Change (PAC) and includes, besides Lone’s Peoples Conference, alleged Jamaat proxy Justice Development Front (JDF) and Peoples’ Democratic Front (PDF). None, except Lone’s party, has an MLA in J&K, though Jamaat proxies had contested in some seats unsuccessfully in last year’s assembly polls.

Besides revival of Articles 370 and 35-A “through democratic and constitutional means”, a “declaration for change” jointly adopted by the three groups sought general amnesty for political prisoners and conflict-affected youth, among other demands.

Lone described the alliance as a contest between “those who have endured pain and those who inflicted it”, counting himself among those who have suffered in J&K’s three-decade conflict. The move, Lone said, signals a decisive shift from the “comfort of an elite political class” towards a people-led movement rooted in justice, accountability, and dignity.

“There are two kinds of political forces in Kashmir. One comprises those who were beaten, jailed, interrogated. Many of them now lie in graveyards. The other includes those who inflicted that suffering. The irony is that, for the last three decades, it’s the latter, those who caused the pain, who have governed us,” Lone said.

JDF president Shameem Ahmad Thokar echoed the views. “Those who have been imprisoned, have truly suffered, will now come forward and speak with one voice, whether in Srinagar or Delhi,” Thokar said.

The governing National Conference (NC) dismissed the new grouping, calling it an attempt to undermine its govt led by CM Omar Abdullah. An NC spokesperson, Tanvir Sadiq, described the alliance as “BJP’s freshly repackaged B-team” that had been rejected by people in the past and would be shunned in the future.

Jamaat proxies had entered the fray as independents in Kulgam, Devsar, Pulwama, and Bandipora in last year’s assembly polls but drew a blank. In Kulgam, though, a Jamaat proxy, Sayar Ahmad Reshi, had given CPM’s Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami a tough fight, losing by 7,800 votes. Hakeem Yaseen, chairman of PDF in the new formation, had lost in Budgam.