A post claiming that global terrorist Syed Salahuddin fought the assembly elections from Kashmir in 1987 on Congress party ticket is doing rounds on social media. Through this article let’s fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: Global terrorist Syed Salahuddin contested assembly election from Kashmir on the congress party ticket in 1987
Fact: As per Election Commission of India (ECI), Mohammed Yusuf Shah (also known as Syed Salahuddin) had contested from Srinagar’s Amirakadal constituency as an independent candidate in 1987 and lost. Also, the Congress party did not contest in this constituency. Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE.
Google search with the keyword ‘Syed Salahuddin’ led us to a Wikipedia page which is on his name. From this page, we found that Syed Salahuddin’s actual name is ‘Syed Mohammed Yusuf Shah’ which he later changed to ‘Syed Salahuddin’. He is the head of Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, a pro-Pakistan Kashmiri separatist terrorist organization.
According to the information available on Election Commission of India (ECI) website about the 1987 assembly election in Jammu and Kashmir, Mohammed Yusuf Shah (also known as Syed Salahuddin) had contested from Srinagar’s Amirakadal constituency as an independent candidate and lost to Gulam Mohiuddin Shoh of JKN(Jammu& Kashmir National Conference). Also, in this election, Congress party did not filed any candidate in this constituency. With this, we can conclude that Syed Salahuddin did not contest on behalf of the Congress party.
On 26 June 2017, the U.S Department of State has designated Syed Salahuddin, head of the terror group Hizb-ul-Mujahideen (HIM) as a global terrorist. Indian External Affairs Minister had confirmed the same in reply to a question in Rajya Sabha regarding Syed Salahuddin’s designation as a global terrorist in 2017. When an individual or an organization is designated as a ‘Global Terrorist’ or a ‘Terrorist Organization’, assets in the US are blocked. Designation of individual or groups would expose and isolate them and result in denial of access to the U.S. financial system. Also, these designations help law enforcement in other nations. Details of what happens when someone is designated as a global terrorist can be read here.
In November 2019, the ED (Enforcement Directorate) had attached Kashmir assets linked to Syed Salahuddin. To sum it up, Syed Salauddin did contest 1987 election on the Congress party ticket.
