Engineer Rashid to sit on two-day hunger strike in Tihar jail

Jailed Lok Sabha MP from Jammu and Kashmir’s Baramulla, Sheikh Abdul Rashid, said on Saturday that he would sit on a two-day hunger strike on the eve of Gandhi Jayanti to evoke the significance of the non-violence principle.

In a handwritten letter addressed to ‘Bapu’ and forwarded to the Lok Sabha Speaker, the MP, who is currently lodged in New Delhi’s Tihar jail in a terror funding case, said the entire world is in a “desperate need” for peace.

Asserting that while Gandhi’s philosophy of non-violence is more relevant now than ever, the MP — popularly known as Engineer Rashid — said that nations across the globe directly or indirectly continue to indulge in violence even while claiming to fight for peace.

“Those who speak most of your message, Bapu, hardly match their words with deeds,” he wrote.

He also expressed anguish over the situation in Kashmir. Recalling Gandhi’s role during Partition, Rashid said when the subcontinent was burning in communal flames, “you saw Kashmir as a beacon of hope and harmony”.

“I am sure your soul must be in a state of restlessness while watching what we Kashmiris are passing through since 1989,” the letter said.

“Instead of harmony, Muslims are branded outsiders, with terms like ‘Babar ki Aulad’ (Babar’s children) legitimising hate. I say with responsibility that the great Indian state does not need enemies from outside. The ultranationalists are doing all that what the enemies of India cannot do,” he asserted.

To remind the countrymen of the significance of Gandhi’s non-violence principle, the Lok Sabha MP said he has decided to observe two days of hunger strike in Tihar jail from 10 am on October 1 to 10 am on October 3.