Updated: December 16, 2020 8:59:44 am
Anees-ul-Islam was shot four times on December 4, the only DDC candidate to have faced attack. Shuaib Masoodi
With one arm in a cast and the other around one of the police escorting him, Anees-ul-Islam shifts his weight uneasily as he moves from village to village on Monday. “I missed 10 days of the campaign, this is the last day and I have to make up for my absence,” he says.
On December 4, Anees had been shot four times while campaigning near his home in the Sagam area of Kokernag in the Anantnag district. Competing on a ticket from Anantnag’s J&K Apni Party, Anees is the only candidate who has been attacked in the current elections to district development councils (DDC) in Jammu and Kashmir, the first electoral exercise after the removal of its special status.
The next and penultimate phase of voting is Wednesday. There are 17 candidates in the fray for the Anantnag DDC position. A total of 31 electoral districts will vote on Wednesday, 13 of them in the Kashmir division.
December 4 was Friday and Anees had finished the campaign early to return home to pray. “I met some people and as I was walking towards my car, two people stood up, one of them pulled out a gun and started shooting at me.” He was hit four times, on the arm and near the hip. Four bullets hit the car he was about to board. Anees was transferred to the Kokernag Sub-District Hospital and then to the Srinagar Bone and Joint Hospital.
On Tuesday, the 33-year-old made pit stops in each of the 16 villages that make up the Anantnag DDC in a six-car cavalcade, most of them with security personnel. The wounds make it difficult for him to continue to get out of his bulletproof Ambassador car, but Anees makes the effort and, making short speeches, makes a fervent appeal: “I have been given a new lease of life and I wish to pass works for you.
In 1995, when he was seven years old, Anees’ father had been killed by “unidentified gunmen”. He says the attack on him, “in the same way,” has strengthened his resolve.
J&K police had blamed the terrorists for the December 4 attack and said Anees had not passed on information about his movement to them.
Previously at the National Conference, Anees, a political science graduate, has been involved in active politics for about seven years. He joined the Apni Party, which emerged earlier this year and which the Center considers supported less than a month ago, and says it was the “political inertia” of the elected leaders that drove him to the race.
“Young people are the most affected by the existing scenario. They are the most misunderstood and are the ones who deal with the consequences of political decisions. However, there is no one to listen to them, ”he says. Anees believes he is in the best position to fill that void, as he knows the pain of not having his voice heard, even though he is a political worker.
“I am one of yours,” Anees says repeatedly in his speeches, a message that other contestants have also been highlighting in this election. To a crowd of about 60, he adds: “If we don’t defend ourselves now, when will we do it?”
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