SRINAGAR: Out on interim bail in a terror funding case till October 2, Sheikh Abdul Rashid aka Er Rashid, the head of the Awami Itihad Party (AIP) and a parliamentarian from north Kashmir’s Baramulla, arrived in Kashmir on Thursday.
Rashid, who served five and a half years in Tihar Jail in connection with a terror funding case, arrived in his homeland this morning to a thunderous welcome from hundreds of his supporters, family members, and friends.
The AIP leader, who was well-known for his outspoken demeanor, kissed his native soil while kneeling on the road before his eyes welled up with tears as he passed the airport drop gate.
“Alhamdulillah, landed at the Srinagar airport,” Rashid wrote in a post on his official Facebook page upon his arrival. He was arrested on August 9, 2019, four days after the abrogation of Article 370.
A Delhi court had on Tuesday granted interim bail until October 2 to the Lok Sabha MP Sheikh Abdul Rashid, to campaign for the Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir. Engineer Rashid had been lodged in Delhi’s Tihar Jail in a case of alleged terror funding since 2019.
Rashid, who contested the Lok Sabha election as an Independent, defeated National Conference vice-president Omar Abdullah on Baramulla seat, and was released from Tihar on July 5 to take oath as MP. He was granted parole to take oath as member of the Lok Sabha on July 5 this year.
Speaking to the media outside Srinagar Airport, Rashid advocated for a peaceful and meaningful resolution to the Kashmir dispute, which he claimed had been unresolved since 1947.
The north Kashmir MP also criticized the Prime Minister Narendra Modi for scrapping the special constitutional position of J&K under Article 370, asserting the people of Jammu and Kashmir find whatever choice Modi made on August 5, 2019, to be completely unacceptable.
“We are not begging for anything from anyone; rather, we just want to be treated as humans and allowed to live as such. Our main concern is the resolution of the Kashmir dispute, which has been unsolved since 1947,”Rashid said.
The Kashmir dispute, which has so far resulted in the deaths of thousands of innocent people, according to the AIP leader, needs to be resolved in order to bring peace back to the subcontinent.
“No mother’s lap could be empty and no one could be imprisoned any longer. Power, whether as an MP or MLA, means nothing to me; what counts is the dignity, rights, and freedom of the Kashmiri people, which must be upheld, preserved, and respected,” added he.
Rashid in his message to the people of Kashmir exhorted them to not give up or be afraid since the truth is on their side and no one on earth, not even Amit Shah or Narendra Modi, could silence them.
“I want the people of my nation to know that we Kashmiri’s are strong and that we will win because we have been standing up for the truth. We will not accept the decisions that Narendra Modi made onAugust5, 2019. In order to accomplish this purpose, I shall oppose Modi Ji’s Naya Kashmir narrative for which I will be ready to spent rest of my life in Tihar jail,” Rashid said, adding, we want honor and dignity to be restored in J&K, and not peace of a graveyard, thus peace will come on our terms, not yours.
Regarding his strategy for the upcoming assembly elections in light of the criticism he has received from the NC and PDP accusing him of being a BJP proxy, he said “My cause is far greater than what Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Ji are currently wailing for, with all due respect. Their absence from sight for 5.5 years was the reason behind their defeat in the parliamentary elections”
Replying to a query about defeating Omar Abdullah with a huge margin of 2 lakh votes in Parliamentary elections, he said “I’m not glad for Omar Abdullah’s defeat, but happy for Modi Ji’s Naya Kashmir rhetoric was ruptured in north Kashmir. I salute the people of Kashmir, particularly the northerners.
Meanwhile, he said he would support the INDIA bloc candidates in the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections if the opposition grouping promises to restore Article 370 whenever they come to power at the Centre.
“If INDIA bloc assures us that it will restore Article 370 when it comes to power in Delhi, I will tell every candidate of mine to pledge each vote of their supporters for them,” the Baramulla MP told reporters here.
He said if India has to achieve the dream of being a global power, it will have to address the Kashmir issue.
“If India wants to become Vishwaguru, Kashmir issue has to be resolved. If you (PM Modi) have a better solution, please tell us. You are saying that the other side (of Kashmir) wants to join this side. It may be true as well but how do we find out?” he asked.
“I want to make it clear that we are neither enemies of India, nor agents of Pakistan. We are agents of our conscience. (PM) Modi snatched everything from us on August 5, 2019 — illegally and unconstitutionally,” he said.
He said Article 370 will not be restored by making statements inside the comfort of homes.
“How will 370 come back? You will have to protest at Lal Chowk and be ready to be hit by batons. But they (National Conference and PDP) cannot do it. When Amit Shah said no one can give back the statehood to Jammu and Kashmir except the BJP government, they did not even dare to say we will fight for it. It does not mean one has to be violent. Gandhiji did it through non-violence,” he added.
He expressed pity over PDP president Mehbooba Mufti’s statement against him, saying she was deposed from the chair of the chief minister through a tweet by BJP leader Ram Madhav.
“Had Mehbooba resigned to protest the BJP plans to revoke Article 370, I would have said that she is a lioness. But she did not even know when Ram Madhav tweeted that the (PDP-BJP) government is no more,” he said.
He also claimed that NC leader Farooq Abdullah was aware in advance that the Centre is going to revoke Article 370.
Rashid hit out at those who tried to project that he won the Lok Sabha elections due to sympathy vote.
“The vote for me was not emotional outpouring. It was against Modi’s Naya Kashmir. It was a vote for work that I had done in Langate (assembly segment) on human rights and development,” he said.
Rashid also took potshots at NC leader and former chief minister Omar Abdullah.
“Had you (Omar) talked about people’s issues, you would not have needed to lower your cap in Ganderbal and contest from two seats,” he said.
The Baramulla MP also predicted that both Peoples Conference president Sajad Lone and Omar Abdullah will lose the assembly elections from both seats that they are contesting.
“Modi, Amit Shah can’t suppress our voice”
Member of Parliament Sheikh Abdul Rashid, popularly known as Engineer Rashid, on Thursday said no one needs peace more than the people of Kashmir but they want it on their conditions and not on terms set by the Centre.
The Awami Ittehad Party (AIP) chief, who was released on interim jail from Tihar Jail on Wednesday, went down on his knees and touched his forehead on the road after exiting the airport.
“We want to tell (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi that no one needs peace more than we do. But that peace will come at our conditions, not yours. We do not want the peace of a graveyard but peace with dignity,” he said.
Expressing gratitude to his supporters who had assembled outside the airport to welcome him, the Baramulla MP said he wants to convey to the people of Kashmir that they are not weak at all.
“The people of Kashmir will win as the people of Jammu and Kashmir are on the path of truth. The decisions taken by Narendra Modi on August 5, 2019, are totally unacceptable to us. Whether you send Engineer Rashid to Tihar or anywhere else, we will emerge victorious,” he said, referring to the revocation of Article 370 by the Centre.
Flanked by his son and party leaders, Rashid asked his supporters not to lose courage as “the truth is with us”.
“Nobody on earth, be it Narendra Modi, be it Amit Shah, can suppress our voice. The truth is with us and truth will be victorious. We are not begging. We want to be treated like humans.
“We want the Jammu and Kashmir issue, which has been pending since 1947 and has claimed 4-5 lakh lives, to be resolved so that peace returns to the whole sub-continent, no mother loses her children and nobody is imprisoned,” the MP added.
Rashid, who was released from Tihar jail on Wednesday, said that for him, the power of being an MP or an MLA did not matter as “everything comes later on”.
“First, the self-respect, rights and liberty of Kashmiris have to be protected, preserved and honoured,” he said.
Asked about the NC and PDP targeting him, Rashid, a two-time legislator in the erstwhile assembly of J-K, said he has high regard for the leadership of both the parties “but I am fighting a fight for those people for whom they do not have the courage to fight”.
“They were invisible for the last five years. That is why they lost in the parliamentary election. My fight is much bigger than what the PDP and NC are trying today,” Rashid said.
He said he was not happy over Omar Abdullah’s loss in the Lok Sabha polls, “but (I am satisfied) that the people of north Kashmir burst the bubble of Modi’s ‘naya’ Kashmir”.
“I salute the people of north Kashmir, the people of whole Kashmir,” Rashid added.
The AIP supremo later left for Baramulla. He was scheduled to address a public gathering at Delina.
