Former Kashmiri bureaucrat, Shah Faesal set to launch party on March 17, Shehla Rashid likely to join

Former bureaucrat, Shah Faesal is all set to launch his political party on March 17. JNU student leader Shehla Rashid Shora is likely to join Faesal, according to media reports. “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 quoted a source as saying.

Earlier reports suggested Faesal might contest the Lok Sabha polls and National Conference is likely to give a ticket to Faesal. Faesal has been travelling through different districts in the Valley, meeting and bringing “like-minded individuals” into the fold.

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".

"I wish to reiterate that voices of reason in this country cannot be muzzled for long and the environment of siege will need to end if we wish to usher in true democracy," he had said.

Moderate Hurriyat Conference chairman leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq also welcomed Faesel's resignation.

"Welcome the stand to resign by @ShahFaesal to protest unabated killing of Kashmiris by GOI."

"Hope his outrage over killings and his sentiment that #KashmiriLivesMatter guide his choice of politics and gets reflected in representing his people's collective deep driving desire of right to self-determination and their relentless struggle and sacrifice in achieving it - also the reason behind killings and repression on them by the state," the Hurriyat leader had said in his tweet.