SRINAGAR: Baramulla MP and Awami Ittehad Party chief Engineer Abdul Rashid on Tuesday condemned the April 22 Pahalgam militant attack during a speech in the Lok Sabha, calling it “the murder of entire humanity” and appealing to both the government and opposition to initiate dialogue on Kashmir.
Speaking on the custody parole granted by a Delhi court until August 4, Rashid opened his address with a poetic verse before urging members across party lines to acknowledge the pain of Kashmiris. Citing Islamic teachings, he said, “One who kills an innocent is like killing all humanity. What happened in Pahalgam was a murder of humanity.”
Rashid referred to the decades of conflict in Kashmir, claiming over 80,000 lives had been lost since the late 1980s. “We have carried coffins for decades. We are tired of graveyards,” he said, calling for a shift from confrontation to compassion.
The AIP leader, currently in judicial custody in a militant funding case, was permitted to attend Parliament on parole but denied interim bail.
“Let the talks not be for the government’s sake or political gains, but for the people of Kashmir,” Rashid said, urging an honest conversation on the region’s suffering.
His remarks were received with silence and quiet attention from members present in the house.
