Member of Parliament and leader of the Awami Itehad Party (AIP), Engineer Rashid on Thursday said he would support the INDIA bloc if they commit to bringing a resolution in Parliament for restoring Article 370.
"If the INDIA alliance gives me a written assurance that it will introduce a resolution in Parliament for the restoration of Article 370, I, along with my party leaders, will fully support it," Rashid said during a press conference in Srinagar.
Rashid, who was granted interim bail by an NIA court until October 2 after five years, urged people to give him at least 40 seats in the upcoming Jammu and Kashmir elections.
He pledged that if given a strong mandate, he would stage a sit-in outside Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s residence in Delhi. "What will we do there? We will do something unimaginable for the people of Kashmir," he said.
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Clarifying his position, Rashid said he was neither Pakistan's agent nor India's enemy.
He criticised National Conference (NC) Vice President Omar Abdullah, questioning why the NC couldn’t implement the promises that they had included in their manifesto while in power.
He accused the NC of complicity in the execution of Parliament attack convict Muhammad Afzal Guru. "How could New Delhi have hanged Afzal Guru in Tihar without the signature of the then Chief Minister of J&K?" he asked.
Targeting the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) leader Mehbooba Mufti, he recalled that PDP founder Mufti Muhammad Sayeed had claimed a vote for PDP was needed to keep the BJP out of J&K. "What happened instead was that the PDP gave the BJP a platform, which destroyed our dreams," he said.
Voicing opposition to PM Modi’s "Naya Kashmir”, he said that it had "miserably failed in Kashmir as demonstrated by the people of North Kashmir on June 4 when he was defeated by Omar and Sajad Lone of People’s Conference.
Asked if he would support the NC-Congress-PDP alliance, he said, "Let these parties show me a concrete road map on how they plan to get back Article 370".
Rashid’s release has set the stage for renewed political activity in Jammu and Kashmir, where he remains a vocal critic of both the BJP and local parties. Analysts opine that given the narrative he has built over the abrogation of Article 370 and his arrest, his party could emerge as an important player in the upcoming assembly.