Baramulla MP Engineer Rashid was released from Tihar Jail on Wednesday after being granted interim bail by a special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court. The bail, which is valid until October 2, 2024, allows Rashid to campaign in the upcoming Jammu and Kashmir assembly elections.
After being released from Tihar Jail, Engineer Rashid said, "I will not let down my people. I take a pledge that I will fight PM Modi's narrative of 'Naya Kashmir', which has failed totally in J&K. People have rejected whatever he did on 5th August 2019. I am committed to working for the welfare of my people, he said as ANI quoted.
"We are not going to get scared. My fight is bigger than what Omar Abdullah says. His fight is for the chair, my fight is for the people. I am a victim of BJP, I will fight against PM Modi's ideology till my last breath...I am coming to Kashmir to unite my people, not to divide them," he further added.
On July 5, the court had granted Rashid custody parole to take the oath as a member of the Lok Sabha. Rashid has been in jail since 2019 after he was arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act in the 2017 terror funding case. He was lodged in Tihar jail.
According to reports, Rashid's name cropped up in the case during the investigation of Kashmiri businessman Zahoor Watali, who was arrested by the NIA for allegedly funding terrorist groups and separatists in the Kashmir valley. The NIA had filed a charge sheet against several people, including Kashmiri separatist leader Yasin Malik, Lashkar-e-Taiba founder Hafiz Saeed and Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin, in the case. Malik was sentenced to life imprisonment by a trial court in 2022 after he pleaded guilty to the charges.