Rehan Qayoom Mir
Srinagar, Sep 12: The North Kashmir Member Parliament Er Rashid Thursday said that he and his party would extend full support to INDIA alliance if it assures him about bringing a resolution seeking restoration of Article 370 in the Parliament. “Let me clarify this. If INDIA alliance gives me written assurance that it will introduce a resolution in the Parliament about restoration of Article 370, I along with my party leaders will extend full support to it,” Er Rashid told a press conference in Srinagar.
Seeking support from people to give him at least 40 seats in the upcoming elections in J&K, the North Kashmir MP, who is out on an interim bail till October 2, said that he people would give him a powerful mandate, he will stage a sit in outside Prime Minister Narendera Modi’s residence in Delhi. “Now you will ask me, what will we do there? We will do something unimaginable for the people of Kashmir,” the Awami Itehad Party (AIP) chief said. He said that he was neither Pakistan’s agent nor India’s enemy.
Launching a tirade against National Conference vice president Omar Abdullah, Er Rashid said that the NC has released a detailed manifesto promising this and that. “Why couldn’t the party do the same when they were in power,” he asked. He said how could have New Delhi hanged Muhammad Afzal Guru in Tihar without the signature of the then Chief Minister of J&K. “It is easy to point fingers at me, but it is not easy to spend even two days at Tihar. There is a huge difference between spending over five years in Tihar prison and spending some time at cozy SKICC,” Er Rashid said.
Taking a jibe at PDP chief Mehbooa Mufti, Er Rashid said that it was the then PDP patron Mufti Muhammad Sayeed who said that vote to PDP was must to stop BJP’s entry into J&K. “Then what happened, same PDP provided a launching pad to BJP who bulldozed our dreams,” Er Rashid said. He said his fight was against PM Modi’s Naya Kashmir narrative. “His narrative has miserably failed in Kashmir as proved by the people of North Kashmir on June 4,” he said.
Asked whether he would support NC-Congress-PDP at some point, Er Rashid said let these parties show him a concrete road map about how they can get back Article 370.
