National Conference (NC) vice-president Omar Abdullah on Tuesday said that jailed MP Engineer Rashid has been granted bail not to serve the people of Kashmir but to garner votes. Earlier, former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti also accused Rashid Engineer’s party of colluding with the Bharatiya Janata Party. Abdullah raised questions after Rashid was granted interim bail by a Delhi court in a terror funding case. The court has granted interim bail to Lok Sabha member from Kashmir Engineer Rashid till October 2 so that he can campaign in the assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir.
Abdullah told reporters, “We knew this would happen. I feel sorry for the people of Baramulla parliamentary constituency, because this bail was not given to them to serve or attend Parliament.” However, he said it remains to be seen how voters react to Rashid’s interim bail. Asked about People’s Democratic Party (PDP) chief Mehbooba Mufti calling Rashid’s Awami Ittehad Party a ‘pseudo’ party of the BJP, Abdullah said he was very cautious on the issue, but “it is good that Mehbooba has openly said what many people were thinking.” He said Mehbooba has clearly said that Rashid is working on the instructions of the BJP. Engineer Rashid alias Sheikh Abdul Rashid defeated former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah in the Baramulla seat in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Elections for the 90-member Jammu and Kashmir Assembly are to be held in three phases. Counting of votes will take place on October 8.
Mehbooba targeted Rashid’s party
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti on Tuesday said her party was the only party lobbying for a solution to the Kashmir issue and talking about youths “locked in jails”. Taking a dig at jailed Baramulla MP Engineer Rashid’s Awami Ittehad Party (AIP), she said a jailed person was contesting elections while the family of a poor man was not allowed to meet their jailed relatives.
“PDP is the only party which talks about resolving the Kashmir issue, which talks about the youth of Jammu and Kashmir languishing in jails, which talks about the atrocities happening in Jammu and Kashmir. Other parties are worried about this and they have no other option but to apologise to the people,” Mehbooba Mufti told reporters in Pulwama district of south Kashmir.
On Sunday, PDP candidate from Shopian assembly constituency in south Kashmir, Yawar Shafi Bandey, was injured in an alleged attack by AIP workers in Balpura of Shopian. After the attack, Mufti accused the AIP of being a front organisation of the BJP. On some former members of the banned Jamaat-e-Islami (JEI) contesting the assembly elections, the PDP president said that the “real JeI is suffering” due to the government action. “Their schools have been closed, their gardens have been taken over, they have been banned, their party is being broken in the same way the PDP was broken,” he said.
She said, “One person stands up and says he is a candidate of JeI, another says he is a candidate, but the real JeI is suffering, they are in jails. NIA, ED are after them, all agencies are after them.” Mehbooba said that if the government wants Jamaat-e-Islami to embrace democracy, then it should remove interference from this organization.