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SRINAGAR: J&K parties rallied Saturday behind Engineer Rashid and urged authorities to release him temporarily on humanitarian grounds, a day after a Delhi NIA court rejected the jailed Baramulla MP’s bail plea to meet his critically ill father.“I may have a million disagreements with Engineer Rashid. We fight each other politically. But he deserves to meet his critically ill father. That is his right,” Peoples Conference chairman Sajad Lone said.Rashid’s son Abrar said his grandfather Khazir Mohammad was on ventilator support in the ICU of Srinagar’s SMHS Hospital. “Granting short-term bail would not weaken the system. It would show balance and that the law is not blind to human suffering. A man who has spent years in Tihar jail only asked for a few moments with his father in his final hours. It is painful to see that even this was denied. I hope compassion finds space in this critical situation. Some moments, once lost, can never be brought back,” Abrar said.Rashid, lodged in Tihar since 2019, faces charges under the UAPA in a 2017 terror funding case probed by the NIA.Governing National Conference (NC) MP Chowdry Mohammad Ramzan appealed to the Centre “to consider Rashid’s release on humanitarian grounds”.Rashid’s Awami Ittehad Party (AIP) pinned hopes on “fairness and compassion” from Delhi high court, where the MP’s regular bail plea is to come up on April 27. AIP expressed deep concern over the denial of interim relief and urged the authorities to take into account Rashid’s position as a sitting MP of Baramulla, which comprises 18 assembly segments and nearly 40% of Kashmir’s population.Rashid had been granted custody parole to attend Parliament’s Budget session earlier this year. He won the 2024 LS polls defeating NC’s Omar Abdullah by over 2 lakh votes in Baramulla. Omar won J&K’s assembly polls and became CM later that year.
