The activists, including Engineer Rashid’s son Abrar, were taken to the police station as they arrived to sit on hunger strike, demanding the release of the Baramulla MP on the day budget session of Parliament began.
Several Awami Ittehad Party (AIP) workers were detained on Friday as they were sitting on a day-long hunger strike in Srinagar to demand the release of Baramulla Lok Sabha MP and party chief Sheikh Abdul Rashid, alias Engineer Rashid, police said.
Awami Ittehad Party (AIP) workers were detained in Srinagar as they planned a day-long hunger strike to demand the release of Baramulla Lok Sabha MP and party chief Sheikh Abdul Rashid, alias Engineer Rashid, from jail as the budget session of Parliament began on Friday. (HT file photo)
The AIP workers assembled at the Sangarmal Shopping Complex, where they had decided to hold the hunger strike after the district authorities rejected the party’s application for a sit-in near Pratap Park in the Lal Chowk area of the city.
The police, who were waiting at the new venue, bundled the AIP workers, including Rashid’s son Abrar, into vehicles and detained them at Kothibagh police station. Before being taken away, Abrar told reporters that not allowing his father to attend the Parliament session was murder of democracy.
“He has been jailed for five-and-a-half years and he is not allowed to attend Parliament. This is a murder of democracy,” he said.
The AIP said that the party cadres had planned to sit on a day-long hunger strike in solidarity with Rashid, who is starting an indefinite hunger strike in Tihar Jail.
Rashid was elected to Lok Sabha from Baramulla constituency last year, defeating Omar Abdullah, now the chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir, and People’s Conference president Sajad Gani Lone.
News/Cities/Chandigarh/ Awami Ittehad Party workers demanding Engineer Rashid’s release detained in Srinagar