Amritpal Singh of Khadoor Sahib and Engineer Rashid of Baramulla, who are both on parole, take their oath to serve as Lok Sabha Members.
Rashid’s family was only permitted to attend his oath-taking, but Singh, the leader of the Khalistani movement “Waris Punjab De,” has been allowed to see his family in Delhi.
Amritpal Singh, a jailed radical Sikh preacher, and Sheikh Abdul Rashid, a leader of Kashmir who was granted parole to take the oath of office as a member of the Lok Sabha, were sworn in as MPs on Friday in the midst of a significant security presence in and around the Parliament complex.
Singh is incarcerated in a prison in the Dibrugarh area of Assam for offenses under the National Security Act, while Rashid, also known as Engineer Rashid, is in Delhi’s Tihar Jail in connection with a terror funding case filed under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
This morning, security guards escorted them to the Parliament complex.
Following the completion of procedures, the MPs-elect took an oath in the speaker’s chamber of the Lok Sabha, according to a source.
While incarcerated, Singh, 31, and Rashid, 56, emerged victorious in the recent Lok Sabha elections as Independents from Khadoor Sahib in Punjab and Baramulla in Jammu and Kashmir, respectively.
Together with the other victorious candidates, they were unable to take the oath of office as members of the 18th Lok Sabha on June 24 and 25.
Singh was given a four-day detention release, starting on July 5, in consideration of the travel from Assam to Delhi and back, and Rashid was given a two-hour parole, discounting the time spent traveling from Tihar to the Parliament, for taking an oath.
According to their parole terms, they are not allowed to talk with the media about any subject or make any statements while they are on temporary release. Additionally, none of their family members are permitted to speak in the media.
Rashid’s family was only permitted to attend his oath-taking, but Singh, the leader of the Khalistani movement “Waris Punjab De,” has been allowed to visit his family in Delhi.
Rashid, who has been imprisoned since 2019 following his arrest in 2017, was granted parole by a Delhi court, and Singh was granted parole by the Amritsar district magistrate. Singh was arrested in April 2023 after breaking into a police station in February and fighting with officers in an attempt to release one of his assistants from custody.
According to the directives, Singh and Rashid must have security guards with them at all times while they are on parole.
For processes inside the Parliament complex, the secretary general of the Lok Sabha has instructed the Delhi Police and Punjab Police to coordinate.
During the investigation of Kashmiri businessman Zahoor Watali, whom the NIA had detained for allegedly aiding terrorist groups and separatists in the Kashmir valley, Rashid’s name—a former MLA—came up.
Yasin Malik, the leader of the Kashmiri separatist movement, Hafiz Saeed, the founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba, and Syed Salahuddin, the leader of Hizbul Mujahideen, are among the people against whom the NIA has filed a charge sheet. Malik entered a guilty plea to the allegations in 2022, and the trial court sentenced him to life in prison. Singh, who identified with the assassinated Khalistani insurgent Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, is being held in custody for violating the National Security Act along with nine other associates.
