Rasheed bats for police now.
Srinagar
Langate lawmaker Engineer Rasheed on Monday along with scores of his party workers marched from Polo View Srinagar to City Centre Lalchowk against the thrashing of policemen by army personnel in police station in Gund area of Ganderbal district during the intervening night of July 22 and 23.
Besides, his party workers, the protest march also witnessed the presence of two persons who had donned Jammu and Kashmir Police uniform and were bandaged to depict the thrashed cops. One of the two was bandaged in his head while the other had bandage in his arm.
As soon as Rasheed and his workers came out of the vehicles, the passer by and the media men covering the protest mistook the two as the policemen who were thrashed by the army personnel in Gund police station. However, it was later known that they were civilians mocking as cops of JKP.
Carrying banners, the protesters chanted slogans against the army. They demanded that strict action be taken against the army personnel who were involved in the thrashing of Jammu and Kashmir police personnel.
They later marched towards City Centre Lalchowk and interestingly, today Rasheed’s protest march was allowed to move ahead towards Lalchowk. Although near the Kothi Bagh police station, the workers of Rasheed had apprehensions that they won’t be allowed to move ahead, no police personnel was visible outside the police station.
In the past, whenever Rasheed tried to march protesting against “atrocities”, his marches were disallowed, a source close to Rasheed said. He said that since today, Rasheed is protesting for the Police and against the army, the police department has, perhaps, decided to allow Rasheed to move ahead.
Amid scorching heat Rasheed kept walking towards Lalchowk. Meanwhile, the traffic coming into city centre from several parts of the city came to a grinding halt.
Later, after Rasheed reached Ganta Ghar in Srinagar, a police party of the Maisuma police station bundled him into a police vehicle and lodged him in a Police station. Before being dragged into the police vehicle, Rasheed raised slogans against the army and in favour of plebiscite.
“Bharat se Rishta kya, Jabri Qabza aur kya and Hai haq Hamara Rai Shumari”
A number of locals also joined the protest and kept responding to Rasheed’s slogans. The two parody police persons carried banners reading: Hum wada kartay hain aaj k baad hum Kashmiri bhayioon par zulm nahi karenge (We promise we will never use force against Kashmiri brothers.”
As Rasheed was being whisked away by police, his supporters kept raising slogans in favour of plebiscite and against Indian army.
In the past as well, Rasheed has held unique protest demonstrations against various issues. His past protest saw participation of Horses and Dogs as well. During a protest against the rising dog menace, Rasheed brought along some dogs to protest against the Srinagar Muncipal Corporation.
Earlier last year he also threw a beef party in MLA hostel in Srinagar against the court order to enforce beef ban in the state.
