Protesters in Delhi demand release of Er Rasheed, other Kashmiri detainees
New Delhi: A massive sit-in protest was held at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi to mark six years of illegal incarceration of jailed Baramulla Member of Parliament and Awami Ittehad Party President, Engineer Abdul Rasheed and other Kashmiri political prisoners.
According to Kashmir Media Service, hundreds of supporters, civil society activists, and sympathisers carrying placards and banners demanded the immediate release of Er Rasheed along with other Kashmiris imprisoned in different jails across India and occupied Jammu and Kashmir.
The protesters termed Rasheed’s continued detention an assault on democracy, saying that keeping an elected representative behind bars amounts to denying the people of Jammu and Kashmir their political voice. They raised slogans and carried posters reading, “Prison walls cannot silence people’s mandate” and “When leaders are jailed, democracy fails.”
Speakers at the sit-in, including noted Delhi-based peace activist O.P. Shah, said six years of incarceration despite Rasheed’s parliamentary mandate was a travesty of justice. They urged the Indian government to release him immediately.
The demonstrators reaffirmed that the sit-in was a strong message of solidarity with all Kashmiri political prisoners, amplifying the call for justice, democracy, and human rights in Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir.
