articles for weekly Chattan. He was detained many times for protesting against the army and the administration. He spent around five months in different police lockups and interrogation centres like Cargo, CIK, Central Jail and Humhama. And once charged for being spokesman of a militant outfit. Rashid shot into limelight, locally, after leading a protest against a custodial killing in 2003. The protests stopped, the practice of unpaid unwanted forced labour perpetuated by the army.
Rashid, a political novice, defeated career politicians as he raised all the noises, the people in his area wanted to hear. People, especially in the rural areas, wanted the pressure put by troopers in the shape of closed roads, humiliating frisking, forced labour, etc., to be eased out. Being himself a victim of troopers’ highhandedness and having participated in various protests against army excesses, people related to him. And voted him to victory.
After winning the elections he pursued the fight against army’s excesses. Besides many FIRs against the army, Rasheed lodged 24 cases with State Human Rights Commission accusing troopers of taking people of his area on forced labour.
Rasheed says sentiment and development are interlinked. “Sentiment without development is impossible and development without sentiment is impossible,” Rasheed says. “You can not concentrate on development at the cost of sentiment, which is for freedom, or for resolution of the dispute,” he says.
