Srinagar. MP Sheikh Abdul Rashid, who returned home on interim bail after being in jail for more than five years, said on Thursday that no one needs peace more than the people of Kashmir, but “this peace will come on our terms” and not on the terms set by the central government.
Popularly known as Engineer Rashid, Awami Ittehad Party (AIP) chief and Lok Sabha member from Baramulla, Rashid bowed down on the road after coming out of Srinagar airport terminal in the morning. He said, “We want to tell (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi that no one needs peace more than us. But this peace will come on our terms, not on your terms. We do not want peace like a graveyard, but peace with respect.” Expressing gratitude to his supporters who gathered to welcome him outside the airport, Rashid said that he wants to send a message to the people of Kashmir that they are not weak at all.
Referring to the abrogation of Article 370 by the Centre, he said, “The people of Kashmir will win because the people of Jammu and Kashmir are on the path of truth. The decisions taken by Narendra Modi on August 5, 2019 are completely unacceptable to us. Whether you send Engineer Rashid to Tihar or somewhere else, we will be victorious.” Surrounded by his son and party leaders, Rashid asked his supporters not to lose courage.
He said, “The truth is with us. No one on earth, be it Narendra Modi or Amit Shah, can suppress our voice. We are with the truth and the truth will prevail. We are not begging. We want to be treated like humans.” The MP said, “We want the issue of Jammu and Kashmir, which has been pending since 1947 and has taken the lives of four to five lakh people, to be resolved so that peace returns to the entire subcontinent. No mother should lose her children and no one should have to go to jail.” When asked about him being targeted by the National Conference and the PDP, Rashid said that he respects the leaders of both the parties a lot.
He said, “But I am fighting for those people for whom he does not have the courage to fight. He was missing for the last five years. That is why he lost the parliamentary elections. My fight is much bigger than the efforts of PDP and National Conference today.” He said that he is not happy with Omar Abdullah’s defeat in the Lok Sabha elections.
“But (I am satisfied that) the people of north Kashmir have deflated Modi’s claims of a ‘new’ Kashmir,” Rashid said. “I salute the people of north Kashmir, the people of entire Kashmir,” he said. The AIP supremo later left for Baramulla, where he was scheduled to address a public meeting at Delina.