Noted civil society members from Delhi join sit-in protest at Jantar Mantar demanding release of MP Er Rashid

STC NEWS MONITORING DESK
NEW DELHI, AUGUST 25 (STC): A ‘massive’ sit-in protest here at Jantar Mantar was held to mark six years of incarceration of Baramulla Member of Parliament, Engineer Rashid, reports a cross section of media.
According to the reports, many civil society members from Delhi, including noted peace activist O.P. Shah, also participated in the protest, lending their support to the demand for the release of Er Rashid.
Reports state that hundreds of supporters, activists, and sympathisers gathered carrying placards and banners demanding the immediate release of Er Rashid and other Kashmiris languishing in different jails across the country and Jammu & Kashmir.
Protestors raised slogans calling the detention of Er Rashid an “assault on democracy,” stressing that keeping a democratically elected MP behind bars undermines the very mandate of the people of Jammu and Kashmir.
Carrying posters reading “Prison walls cannot silence people’s mandate” and “When leaders are jailed, democracy fails,” the demonstrators urged the Government of India to end what they termed as “unjust and prolonged detention.”
Leaders addressing the gathering said that six long years of incarceration despite public support and parliamentary mandate is “a travesty of justice” and demanded his immediate release so that he can represent his people inside Parliament.

(Inputs from KNS. Straight Talk Communications)