PoK woman, married to former militant, contests DDC polls in Kashmir

A woman originally from Muzaffarabad in Pakistan- Occupied Kashmir (POK) is among many female candidates contesting the ongoing DDC (District Development Council) elections in Jammu and Kashmir. Somia Sadaf is standing from Drugmulla constituency in Kupwara district of North Kashmir. Somia Sadaf had married a Kashmiri, Abdul Majeed Bhat, resident of Batargam village of Kupwara in the early 1990s when Abdul Majeed crossed the border for arms training. However, he gave up militancy to start his own business in Muzaffarabad where he met and married Somia, a local girl. Later both of them migrated to Kashmir under the rehabilitation policy announced by the then National Conference (NC) government headed by Omar Abdullah in 2010. Somia while talking to ANI said that initially she was not interested in the DDC elections, but because of her work with a union government scheme called JKSRLM (UMEED), where she had to do much field work, people in her area asked her to stand in the DDC elections. “However, I experienced harsh times when I first came here along with my husband. We started life from zero. I know what the pain of a poor person is. It is another reason why I decided to stand in elections,” she said. Somia further said that if she wins she will work for her people and encourage youths to start their own business ventures as it is not possible for the government to provide jobs to everyone. A local Municipal councilor from Baramulla hailed this step taken by Somia Sadaf as democracy is the only way to help people in solving their problems.