Following the allegedly rigged state election in Jammu and Kashmir in 1987, the disaffected youth of the Kashmir Valley started crossing the Line of Control to Azad Kashmir to obtain arms and training. Khan's JKLF was their natural destination. Scholar Paul Staniland states that the JKLF was "reborn" in the Indian-controlled Kashmir in this period. It was led by young activists from Srinagar and environs, who crossed into Azad Kashmir for arms and training and returned to Srinagar. Yasin Malik, along with Hamid Sheikh, Ashfaq Wani and Javed Ahmad Mir, formed the core group — dubbed the "HAJY" group — of the JKLF militants in the Kashmir Valley. The enormity of popular support received for their call for independence surprised them. Within two years, the JKLF in the Valley emerged as the "vanguard and spearhead of a popular uprising" against the Indian state.