Former bureaucrat, Shah Faesal to launch his political party in Srinagar today

Former bureaucrat, Shah Faesal is all set to launch his political party 'Jammu and Kashmir People's Movement' today in Srinagar’s Rajbagh area. The 2010 batch UPSC topper resigned from the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) in January this year to protest unabated killings in Kashmir and maginalisation of Indian Muslims. He said such moves had the potential to decimate the constitutional edifice of the country and the same needed to be stopped.

Inviting you all to launching ceremony of J&K Peoples' Movement.
Venue: Football ground Gindun Park near Police Station Rajbagh.#abhawabadlegi pic.twitter.com/7etMt3Psnn

— Shah Faesal (@shahfaesal) March 16, 2019

Since resigning from the service, the former bureaucrat has been interacting with young achievers with an aim of getting them to support his initiative for "corruption-free, clean and transparent" politics in the state.

He had also launched a crowdfunding campaign in January to support his initiative.

Several youngsters and aspiring politicians are expected to join Faesal's political outfit.

Earlier there were reports, JNU student leader Shehla Rashid Shora is likely to join Faesal. “Shora is going to join Shah Faesal, who is launching a new political party. She is getting a central position in the core team. She has been working closely with Faesal over the past few months and was involved in the decision-making process for the inception of the party,” The Print had quoted a source as saying. Shehla emerged as a prominent face after Kanhaiya Kumar, Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya were arrested for a February 2016 protest in 2016 against the execution of Afzal Guru.

Faesal has been in the limelight since becoming the first Kashmiri to top the civil services exam in 2009. In a brief statement on Facebook, the 35-year-old Faesal, who belongs to 2010 batch of the IAS, said his resignation was also to protest "the marginalisation and invisiblisation of around 200 million Indian Muslims at the hands of Hindutva forces reducing them to second-class citizens; insidious attacks on the special identity of the state and growing culture of intolerance and hate in mainland India in the name of hyper-nationalism".