Srinagar, June 27 -- In a statement issued on Friday, Rashid's party, the Awami Ittehad Party (AIP), said the hunger strike comes amid the national political discourse around the 1975 Emergency and growing accusations of authoritarianism between the BJP and the Congress.

"While national parties are engaged in a war of words over the erosion of democracy, they remain silent on the plight of hundreds of Kashmiris jailed under draconian laws like the UAPA merely for their political beliefs," the party said.

The jailed MP, according to his family, accused both the BJP and the Congress of hypocrisy. "Both parties accuse each other of throttling freedoms, yet both are complicit in the systematic suppression of Kashmiri voices," Rashid is repo...