India
No one can suppress our voice, the truth is with us: Engineer Rashid in Srinagar | India News – Times of India
SRINAGAR: Returning home after more than five years of captivity, MP Sheikh Abdul Rashid, popularly known as Engineer Rashid, on Thursday said no one needs peace more than the people of Kashmir but they want it on their terms and not on the terms set by the Centre. The Awami Ittehad Party (AIP) leader, who was released from Tihar Jail on Wednesday, knelt down and touched the road with his forehead after leaving the airport.
“We want to tell Prime Minister Narendra Modi that no one needs peace more than we do. But that peace will come on our terms, not yours. We don’t want the peace of a graveyard, but peace with dignity,” he said.
The Baramulla MP thanked his supporters who had gathered outside the airport to welcome him and said he wanted to let the people of Kashmir know that they are not weak at all.
“People of Kashmir will win because people of Jammu and Kashmir are following the path of truth. The decisions taken by Narendra Modi on August 5, 2019, are totally unacceptable to us. Whether you send Engineer Rashid to Tihar or somewhere else, we will emerge victorious,” he said, referring to the abrogation of Article 370 by the Centre.
Flanked by his son and party leaders, Rashid asked his supporters not to lose courage, because “the truth is with us”.
“Nobody on earth, be it Narendra Modi or Amit Shah, can suppress our voice. Truth is with us, and truth will prevail. We are not begging. We want to be treated as human beings. “We want the Jammu and Kashmir issue, which has been pending since 1947 and has claimed 4-5 lakh lives, to be resolved so that peace returns to the entire subcontinent, no mother loses her children and no one is jailed,” the MP added.
Rashid, who was released from Tihar jail on Wednesday, said for him the power of an MP or an MLA did not matter as “everything comes later”.
“First and foremost, the self-respect, rights and freedom of Kashmiris must be protected, preserved and honoured,” he said.
When asked about the attacks by the NC and the PDP, Rashid, who was a two-time legislator in the former JK assembly, said he has great respect for the leaders of both parties, “but I am fighting for the people they do not have the courage to fight for.”
“They have been invisible for the past five years. That is why they lost the parliamentary elections. My struggle is much bigger than what the PDP and NC are trying to do today,” Rashid said.
He said he was not happy with the loss of Omar Abdullah in the Lok Sabha polls, “but (I am happy) that the people of North Kashmir have burst the bubble of Modi’s ‘naya’ Kashmir.”
“I greet the people of North Kashmir, the people of the entire Kashmir,” Rashid added. The AIP Supreme later left for Baramulla. He was to address a public meeting in Delina.
“We want to tell Prime Minister Narendra Modi that no one needs peace more than we do. But that peace will come on our terms, not yours. We don’t want the peace of a graveyard, but peace with dignity,” he said.
The Baramulla MP thanked his supporters who had gathered outside the airport to welcome him and said he wanted to let the people of Kashmir know that they are not weak at all.
“People of Kashmir will win because people of Jammu and Kashmir are following the path of truth. The decisions taken by Narendra Modi on August 5, 2019, are totally unacceptable to us. Whether you send Engineer Rashid to Tihar or somewhere else, we will emerge victorious,” he said, referring to the abrogation of Article 370 by the Centre.
Flanked by his son and party leaders, Rashid asked his supporters not to lose courage, because “the truth is with us”.
“Nobody on earth, be it Narendra Modi or Amit Shah, can suppress our voice. Truth is with us, and truth will prevail. We are not begging. We want to be treated as human beings. “We want the Jammu and Kashmir issue, which has been pending since 1947 and has claimed 4-5 lakh lives, to be resolved so that peace returns to the entire subcontinent, no mother loses her children and no one is jailed,” the MP added.
Rashid, who was released from Tihar jail on Wednesday, said for him the power of an MP or an MLA did not matter as “everything comes later”.
“First and foremost, the self-respect, rights and freedom of Kashmiris must be protected, preserved and honoured,” he said.
When asked about the attacks by the NC and the PDP, Rashid, who was a two-time legislator in the former JK assembly, said he has great respect for the leaders of both parties, “but I am fighting for the people they do not have the courage to fight for.”
“They have been invisible for the past five years. That is why they lost the parliamentary elections. My struggle is much bigger than what the PDP and NC are trying to do today,” Rashid said.
He said he was not happy with the loss of Omar Abdullah in the Lok Sabha polls, “but (I am happy) that the people of North Kashmir have burst the bubble of Modi’s ‘naya’ Kashmir.”
“I greet the people of North Kashmir, the people of the entire Kashmir,” Rashid added. The AIP Supreme later left for Baramulla. He was to address a public meeting in Delina.
