New Delhi: Baramulla MP Engineer Rashid walked out of Tihar Jail on Wednesday, a day after an NIA court here granted him interim bail till October 2 in a terror-funding case so that he can campaign in the J&K assembly polls. After his release, he alleged National Conference’s Omar Abdullah and PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti have “destroyed” Kashmir.
Mufti has described Rashid’s Awami Ittehad Party as BJP’s proxy. Abdullah, while being ‘cautious’ on his release, said: “It is good that she has stated openly what many people are thinking.” Abdullah has said that Rashid has been given bail to fetch votes from the people of Kashmir and not to serve them.
Sheikh Abdul Rashid, popularly known as Engineer Rashid, has been in jail since 2019 following his arrest by NIA under UAPA in the 2017 terror-funding case. He had defeated Abdullah in the Lok Sabha polls in Baramulla. Rashid’s outfit Awami Ittehad Party is contesting the assembly polls. “I am committed to fighting for my people. I am coming back to unite people and not divide them,” he told reporters outside Tihar.
“I want to bring everlasting peace to Kashmir and prove that Kashmiris are not stone pelters. We will not compromise with our political rights,” he said, adding, “I will fight the prime minister’s narrative of naya Kashmir.”
