Why does the BJP want an Islamist party to contest the elections in Jammu and Kashmir?

While the initial phase of the insurgency was controlled by groups like the J&K Liberation Front (JKLF), Hizb later emerged as the leading organisation. The group was considered a sort of sister organisation of the JeI as the militant group recruited Jamaat cadres in large numbers.

The admission of large numbers of recruits into the Jamaat, argues scholar Iymon Majid, was of strategic importance to Hezbollah because it wanted to “bring ideological unity to its organization” and prevent defections and divisions over ideological issues. The question of its links to Hezbollah led to another wave of bans in April 1990.

At a press conference in November 1998, the Emir or senior leader of the JeI, Ghulam Muhammad Bhat, publicly distanced himself from any militancy and claimed that the group was “essentially a constitutional democratic organisation”.

During the press conference, he asked: “If a picture is published showing (Hezbollah chief) Syed Salahuddin shaking hands with Pakistan Jamaat-e-Islami chief Qazi Hussain Ahmed, the blame is not on us… Are we being made scapegoats in this political game?”

This position led to disagreements between Bhat and the more hardline faction of the Jamaat, led by hawks like Syed Ali Shah Geelani, who later defected from the party and formed his own separatist party, the Tehreek-e-Hurriyat (TeH). The rift between Geelani and the JeI deepened to such an extent that the Jamaat expelled members close to him in the early 2000s.