SRINAGAR: Kashmir’s chief cleric Mirwaiz Umar Farooq Thursday urged central govt to release Baramulla MP Engineer Rashid, who has remained incarcerated at New Delhi’s Tihar Jail for the past five years, on humanitarian grounds, to meet his ailing father.In a statement, the Mirwaiz said he had visited the jailed MP’s father, Khazir Mohammad Sheikh, at SMHS hospital in Srinagar. “He is critically ill and yearning to see his son… which could be their last meeting,” he stated. He said the “silent suffering” of political prisoners lodged in different jails across the country, and in J&K, was heartbreaking.Spokesperson of Awami Itihaad Party (founded by Rashid), Inam Un Nabi, said Sheikh’s health had been deteriorating, and he had been shifted to the ICU.

Nabi urged govt to take a compassionate, humanitarian decision and release Rashid to allow him to care for his ill father.Rashid has been in Tihar after NIA arrested him in a terror-funding case, registered under Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, four days before the nullification of Article 370 on Aug 5, 2019. He attended the budget session of Parliament in Jan this year after a Delhi court granted him custody parole.