Srinagar: Jailed Member of Parliament and maverick political leader from Kashmir, Abdul Rashid Sheikh alias Engineer Rashid will launch a hunger strike in New Delhi's Tihar jail from Friday against disallowing him to attend the Budget Session of the Parliament.
Rashid’s Awami Ittehad Party (AIP) General Secretary Advocate G N Shaheen announced about the hunger strike in Srinagar at a press conference.
Shaheen said the jailed MP has repeatedly applied for bail to attend the budget session in the parliament starting Friday but he is being denied the bail.
He said that to show solidarity with their AIP leader, the party leaders will also observe the hunger strike in Srinagar and in Jammu.
Engineer Rashid has been in Tihar jail in an alleged terror funding and money laundering case from August 2019. He contested the parliament elections in 2024 from jail and defeated Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah and Peoples Conference president and legislator Sajad Lone by a thumping majority by getting over 4 lakh votes from Baramulla parliamentary seat.
Rashid was granted interim bail by the Patiala House Court during the assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir last year, but after his interim bail period ended he again landed in jail.
Meanwhile, the Delhi High Court today sought the NIA's stand on interim bail plea by Rashid to attend the Parliament session.
Justice Vikas Mahajan said, "Let the needful be done before the next date of hearing." Rashid had sought to attend the upcoming budget session of Parliament, which begins on January 31 and concludes on April 4.
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