JDF condemns Pahalgam terror attack, calls it crime against humanity
The Justice and Development Front (JDF), a political party informally established by Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI)-affiliated candidates in February, condemned the Pahalgam terror attack on Sunday saying killing innocents was a crime against humanity.
The party said that within the parameters of justice, they stand with the nation in any action following the attack.
Addressing a press conference, the party said that they join the nation in sorrow after the attack that killed 26 civilians, most of them tourists, in the Baisaran meadow of Pahalgam on April 22.
President of JDF Shamim Ahmad Thokar said that they had scheduled a convention for the formal launch of the party on April 29 at SKICC but owing to the Pahalgam attack and the national mourning, the programme was cancelled.
'JDF condemns the heinous murders in Pahalgam. Tyranny against innocents is a crime against humanity, which is unacceptable,' he said.
'We will be standing with the nation on whatever action is taken, keeping in mind the parameters of justice,' he said.
Jamaat, a politico-religious organisation which was banned by the central government in 2019 for their alleged links to militant outfits, had fielded some 10 candidates as independents in the elections last year in September-October including the prominent Sayyar Ahmad Reshi and Talat Majid in South Kashmir with no success on any seat. During the militancy which erupted in 1989, separatists and Jamaat would boycott elections and hold rallies against voting in J&K.
In February, Thokar and Reshi and other members had announced the formation of the party at a convention in South Kashmir to give an 'informal introduction of JDF'.
At the press conference, Thokar said that they are formally starting political activities from now on. 'We are starting our political activities from today. And our workers and members across Kashmir, we will be organising conventions and other political activities in the field,' he said.
The party also launched its flag and party logo- 'scales of justice'.
The participation of the JeI-backed candidates in assembly elections marked the organisation's return to electoral politics after 37 years.
The party condemned the targeting of Kashmiri students outside the union territory.
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