Muzamil Bashir
On 04 August 2019, Former Law maker and Ex MLA Langate Engineer Rashid was, according to his family, summoned by the National Investigation Agency of India and a few days later on the 14th day of August the same year, he was shifted to Tihar Jail in New Delhi.
Later in October, NIA filed a supplementary charge sheet against Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front chief Yasin Malik and others before a Delhi court in connection with a case related to funding of separatists and militant groups.
MLA Sheikh Abdul Rashid, popularly known as “Engineer Rashid”, was also named in the charge sheet. Rashid’s name had come up during the investigation of Kashmiri businessman Zahoor Watali, who the NIA had arrested earlier in the year for allegedly supplying money to Militant groups and separatists in the Valley.
The family since then, has been pleading for his release.
Engineer Rashid was summoned a day before the Modi-led Government abrogated the special status of Jammu Kashmir in August last year and several politicians including the three former chief Ministers of the erstwhile state were put under detention.
Khursheed, his brother speaking to The Kashmiriyat said that the family has been trying every possible way to get him out of Tihar where ‘life is not easy.’ Engineer Rashid survived by three children and a wife before his time in detention mostly remained in the news for controversies.
Known for his powerful oratory and debating skills, Engineer Rashid often was found in Police stations after being detained during various protest programs in various parts of Kashmir and elsewhere.
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“Since February 09, we have been unable to meet him, he was not keeping well, he just calls us once in a while, his children eagerly await his release,” his brother told The Kashmiriyat.
Meanwhile a family member demanding his release said, “Rashid is a mainstream politician and not a separatist, we tried to pursue his case through democratic means and have been believing in the institutions of the state.”
The youngest daughter of Engineer Rashid, Shabnam, who is 14 years old says, “her father always taught her believing in the system, now it is the system that pays no ear to the release of the man who has been the pillar of democracy in North Kashmir.”
He does not have a separatist ideology, his family says, adding that, he wooed thousands of voters in North Kashmir and acted as a bridge between those people and the Indian elections.
The family appealed the central Government to release Rashid from Tihar Jail where he is languishing behind bars and has been kept with various criminals.
A Close associate of Rashid speaking to The Kashmiriyat over phone expressed regret that none of the mainstream politicians in Kashmir has spoken of Engineer Rashid. “he was not even invited to the Gupkar declaration.”