Kashmir News: Will support INDIA bloc in polls if they promise to restore Article 370, says Engineer Rashid

Kashmiri Member of Parliament (MP), Sheikh Abdul Rashid said on Thursday said that he would support the INDIA bloc candidates in the upcoming Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections if the opposition promises to restore Article 370 of the Constitution whenever they come to power at the Centre.

Popularly known as Engineer Rashid, the Baramulla MP, was released on interim bail on Wednesday from Tihar jail to campaign for the elections in the Union Territory.

“If INDIA alliance assures us that it will restore Article 370 when it comes to power in Delhi, I will tell every candidate of mine to pledge each vote of their supporters for them,” Rashid, who won the Lok Sabha elections against National Conference Vice President Omar Abdullah, told reporters in Kashmir on Thursday, news agency PTI reported.

The Article 370 that have special status to Jammu and Kashmir was abrogated in August 2019. 

Rashid was released on interim bail by a court on Wednesday. He said if India has to achieve the dream of being a global power, it will have to address the Kashmir issue. “If India has to be Vishwaguru, Kashmir has to be resolved. If you (Modi) have a better solution, please tell us. You are saying that the other side (of Kashmir) wants to join this side. It may be true as well but how do we find out?” he asked.

Rashid’s Awami Ittehad Party (AIP) has fielded 34 candidates in the assembly elections. His younger brother, Khurshid Ahmad Sheikh, is also a candidate from Langate seat in north Kashmir’s Kupwara district. Rashid, who has been in jail since 2019 in a terror-funding case, has been an MLA from Langate seat twice.

The firebrand politician, who is facing charges of terror funding, said if he is being branded as a separatist for talking about resolution of the Kashmir issue, then the entire north Kashmir region was secessionist as they have voted for him.

“I want to make it clear that we are neither enemies of India, nor agents of Pakistan. We are agents of our conscience. Modi has snatched everything from us on August 5, 2019 – illegally and unconstitutionally,” he said.

The three-phased polls in the Union Territory end on October 1 and the results will be declared on October 8. He said Article 370 will not be restored by making statements inside the comfort of homes.

“How will 370 come back? You will have to protest at Lal Chowk and be ready to be hit by batons. But they (National Conference and PDP) cannot do it. When Amit Shah said no one can give back the statehood to Jammu and Kashmir except the BJP government, they did not even dare to say we will fight for it. It does not mean one has to be violent. Gandhiji did it through non violence,” he added.

Rashid said that National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah was aware in advance that the Centre is going to revoke Article 370. “The vote for me was not emotional outpouring. It was against Modi’s Naya Kashmir. It was a vote for work that I had done in Langate (assembly segment) on human rights and development,” he said, adding he had secured only 600 votes less than the runner up candidate in the 2019 assembly elections.

The MP also predicted that both Peoples Conference president Sajad Lone and Omar Abdullah will lose the assembly elections from both seats that they are contesting. While Lone is contesting from Handwara and Kupwara segments, Abdullah is a candidate from Ganderbal and Budgam seats.

Fifty-seven-year-old Rashid was in the news during the Lok Sabha Elections 2024 when he defeated former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah by over two lakh votes in the Baramulla seat in north Kashmir.

Rashid’s win is a shocker since he contested the elections from Tihar jail, where he has been for the last five years facing charges under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act(UAPA). Rashid contested the election as an independent candidate and unlike in assembly elections he was not allowed to campaign during Lok Sabha polls.