Sit-in Protest at Jantar Mantar Demands Release of Jailed MP Engineer Rashid – Alfaaz – The Words

Alfaaz – The Words Desk

Srinagar: A massive sit-in protest is underway at Jantar Mantar, New Delhi, to mark six years of incarceration of Baramulla Member of Parliament and Awami Ittehad Party (AIP) president Engineer Rashid.

Hundreds of supporters, activists, and sympathisers have gathered carrying placards and banners demanding the immediate release of Er Rashid and other Kashmiris lodged in jails across the country and Jammu and Kashmir.

Demonstrators have been raising slogans terming Er. Rashid’s continued detention an “assault on democracy,” arguing that keeping a democratically elected MP behind bars undermines the mandate of the people of Jammu and Kashmir.

Placards carried by protestors read, “Prison walls cannot silence people’s mandate” and “When leaders are jailed, democracy fails.”

Several civil society members from Delhi, including noted peace activist O.P. Shah, also joined the demonstration. Leaders addressing the gathering described Rashid’s six-year incarceration despite his electoral mandate as “a travesty of justice,” and warned that prolonged detention of political representatives erodes public faith in democratic institutions.

The Government of India has been urged to immediately release Er Rashid so that he can represent his people in Parliament.