Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir: Several activists of the Awami Itehad Party (AIP) were detained by the police on Friday as they attempted to hold a hunger strike in Srinagar, (Indian administered Kashmir m) demanding the release of their leader, Engineer Rashid, the Member of Indian Parliament (MP) from Baramulla and head of the AIP.
The AIP workers gathered at the Singer Mall Shopping Complex in Srinagar, where they decided to stage the hunger strike after district authorities rejected their request to hold a protest near Pratap Park in Lal Chowk. The police detained them as they tried to gather at Lal Chowk in the morning, according to the AIP spokesperson, Firdous Baba.
The AIP had announced on Thursday that its imprisoned president, Engineer Rashid, who represents the Baramulla parliamentary seat, would go on a hunger strike to protest being denied permission to attend the upcoming budget session of Parliament. Rashid has been incarcerated in Tihar Jail, New Delhi, since August 2019 on allegations of funding and money laundering. He was released temporarily on bail during the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections in August 2023, but after the expiration of his bail, he was sent back to jail.
Despite being imprisoned, Rashid contested the 2024 Lok Sabha elections from Tihar Jail and won a significant victory, defeating prominent candidates such as Jammu and Kashmir’s Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and Peoples Conference Chairman Sajad Gani Lone by a margin of over 2 lakh votes.