Relieved that Engineer Rashid has been granted permission to take oath as MP: Mehbooba

Srinagar: People's Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti on Monday said she is relieved to know that Sheikh Abdul Rashid, who won the Lok Sabha polls from Baramulla, has been granted permission to take oath as a member of Parliament.

The former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister also demanded that Rashid, popularly known as Engineer, should be released along with other Kashmiri men lodged in various jails.

"It's a shame that Engineer Rashid has been behind bars since 2019 on baseless charges. Relieved to know he's been allowed to take oath as Member of Parliament but his imprisonment itself is an utter travesty of justice in the first place," Mufti said in a post on X.

"GOI must release him immediately along with countless other Kashmiri men languishing in jails," she added.

Rashid, who is in Delhi's Tihar jail in a terror-funding case, defeated National Conference (NC) vice-president Omar Abdullah in the Lok Sabha polls from the Baramulla constituency by a margin of more than two lakh votes.