Continued imprisonment of Kashmiri MP assault on democracy, says his party

NEW DELHI: Awami Ittehad Party of Lok Sabha MP Engineer Rashid Tuesday held a demonstration at Jantar Mantar to mark six years of his incarceration, saying his continued imprisonment is an “assault on democracy”.

Workers of the AIP and civil society activists gathered at the protest venue and expressed “solidarity with Engineer Rashid and other innocent Kashmiris languishing in different jails across the country and in Jammu and Kashmir”. A statement by AIP said hundreds of supporters, activists, and sympathisers gathered carrying placards and banners demanding the immediate release of AIP president and Baramulla MP Engineer Rashid and other Kashmiris.

“Keeping a democratically elected MP behind bars undermines the very mandate of the people of Jammu and Kashmir,” AIP spokesman Inam Un Nabi said.

Carrying posters reading “Prison walls cannot silence people’s mandate” and “When leaders are jailed, democracy fails,” Inam said the demonstrators urged the govt to end what they termed as “unjust and prolonged detention.”

“Leaders who addressed the gathering said that six long years of incarceration despite public support and parliamentary mandate is ‘a travesty of justice’ and demanded Engineer’s immediate release so that he can represent his people inside Parliament,” Inam said.