Mirwaiz urges Center to release engineer Rashid, MP’s father criticizes

Srinagar: Kashmir’s chief cleric Mirwaiz Umar Farooq The central government on Thursday urged the central government to release Baramulla MP Engineer Rashid, who has been lodged in New Delhi’s Tihar Jail for the past five years, on humanitarian grounds to meet his ailing father.Mirwaiz said in a statement that he visited the jailed MP’s father Qazir Muhammad Sheikh at SMHS Hospital in Srinagar. “He was critically ill and longed to see his son… this could be the last time they would ever see each other,” he said. He said the “silent agony” of political prisoners lodged in jails across the country and in J&K jails was heartbreaking.Inam Un Nabi, spokesman for the Awami Itihaad Party (founded by Rashid), said Sheikh’s health had been deteriorating and he had been moved to intensive care. Nabi urged the government to make a compassionate humanitarian decision and release Rashid so he could care for his ailing father.Rashid has been staying in Tihar since the NIA arrested him in a terror financing case registered under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act four days before Section 370 expired on August 5, 2019. He attended the budget session of Parliament in January this year after a Delhi court granted him custody parole.