J&K Independent MLA Sheikh Abdul Rashid detained after rally against Yakub hanging

SRINAGAR: Police today detained Independent MLA from north Kashmir's Langate constituency, Sheikh Abdul Rashid, after he took out a rally here to protest the hanging of 1993 Mumbai blasts convict Yakub Memon and against the prevalence of capital punishment.

Rashid, along with his associates, were taken into preventive custody after they took out the protest march near the Clock Tower at the commercial hub of Lal Chowk here, officials said.

They said Rashid and others were taken to Kothi Bagh Police Station.

Raising slogans against the prevalence of capital punishment and the hanging of Memon, Rashid said, "We want that capital punishment be abolished all over the world. This black, blind and deaf law be abolished."

Criticising the Centre on Memon's hanging, the MLA asked why the killers of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and former Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh were not hanged.

"I want to ask (Prime Minister) Narendra Modi as to why the killers of Rajiv Gandhi were not hanged? Or why there is no hanging for the killers of Beant Singh? We are not saying that they should be hanged. Kashmiris are against capital punishment. But you did not even handover the body of Afzal Guru (the Parliament attack convict who was hanged in 2013)," he said.