Engineer Rashid wasn't in jail for 2 months, plan smells of BJP: Sajad Lone

Srinagar: People's Conference president Sajad Lone on Monday launched a scathing attack on Lok Sabha member Sheikh Abdul Rashid, alleging that the latter was not in jail for the past two months.

Lone said the timing of Rashid's release from the Tihar jail smacked of a BJP plan.

"This is the worst executed plan of Delhi since 1947. No plan has been so badly executed. This plan smells of BJP," Lone told reporters here.

The People's Conference chief, who lost to Rashid, popularly known as Engineer Rashid, from Baramulla in the Lok Sabha polls earlier this year, said while he does not believe in branding anyone as agent or proxy, the Awami Ittehad Party (AIP) supremo should tell people where he was for the past two months.

"He was not in jail for the past two months... He should tell people where he was," he said.

Lone said whenever the Centre wants to hold talks with someone who is in jail, that person is taken ill and hospitalised.

"I have seen this happen since 1991. This is not something new but the previous governments had a way of executing it. This has been badly executed, as ugly as their (BJP) ideology," he said.

Lone said there "undoubtedly" is interference from the Centre and the local administration to influence the outcome of elections.

"I appeal to them to desist from it. Please remember 1987 (assembly polls)... There won't be a safe passage for anyone in Kupwara," he said.