Baramulla MP and Awami Ittehad Party (AIP) leader Engineer Rashid was granted interim bail by a Delhi court on Tuesday, allowing him to campaign for Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections until October 2.
His party has already fielded 34 candidates for the Assembly polls, and his participation is expected to boost AIP's momentum, especially following his significant Lok Sabha victory.
Rashid, who has been in jail since 2019 in a terror funding case, won the Lok Sabha elections as an Independent candidate, defeating major political figures like National Conference (NC) vice-president Omar Abdullah and People’s Conference leader Sajad Lone.
'Behind-the-scenes...': How the J&K leaders reacted to Rashid's bail
PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti said AIP is as a proxy of the BJP, which aims to divide the Kashmiri vote.
Her party leader Naeem Akhtar claimed that the bail undermines the credibility of the election process. He pointed out the swift rise of Rashid’s candidates, some of whom had previous government ties.
Omar Abdullah said that while expected, it appeared the bail was granted more for election purposes than to serve the people of Baramulla. Omar also said that the BJP could try to form the government with Rashid’s Awami Ittehad Party (AIP). He also noted that Rashid would likely be returned to Tihar Jail after the elections, leaving Baramulla without representation again.
What are NIA's charges against Engineer Rashid
According to the Indian Express, on May 30, 2017, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) registered a case against Lashkar-e-Taiba founder Hafiz Saeed and others who received and collected funds through hawala channels in to fund terrorist activities in J&K. Rashid was not named in the case at the time.
Rashid's name cropped up in the terror funding case during the interrogation of Kashmiri businessman Zahoor Watali, who was arrested by the NIA for allegedly funding separatists in the Valley. The NIA had filed a chargesheet against Kashmiri separatist leader Yasin Malik, Lashkar-e-Taiba founder Hafiz Saeed, Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin and many others in the case.
Four days after the abrogation of Article 370, Rashid was arrested on August 9 in 2019.
NIA believes that Rashid wanted to legitimise a platform of anti-India militant groups in J&K - United Jihad Council (UJC) - and worked in close association with terror groups propagating their separatist and secessionist ideologies.
A social media post and an email
An email sent by one Khawaja Manzoor Ahmed Chishti to Yasin Malik, asking for a packet to be handed to “Shaikh Rasheed Sahib”, became the centre of NIA investigation. Rashid, however, claimed that the "Shaikh Rasheed Sahib" in the email was not him.
The NIA also had relied on a post on Rashid’s Facebook page where he was allegedly trying to defend terrorist Hafiz Saeed.
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