Engineer Sheikh Abdul Rashid is an Indian politician and Member of the Legislative Assembly in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir from the Langate constituency in Handwara. He is also referred as a firebrand lawmaker of Jammu and Kashmir. Rashid joined politics in the year 2008 and stunned political observers by defeating senior National Conference and Peoples Democratic Party leaders Sharif Din Shariq and Muhammad Sultan Panditpuri by 210 votes. He also won from the same constituency in 2015. He is the founder and 'patron' of the Jammu and Kashmir Awami Ittehad Party.
Engineer Rashid studied up to class 10th in Mawar. He passed the high school examination in the year 1983. He completed his 12th as a science student from Govt. Higher Secondary School, Handwara.He is the alumnus of Government Degree College, Sopore, where from he graduated in Science. He completed 3 Year Engineering diploma from Government Polytechnic College in 1991. On 27 September 1993, he was appointed as assistant manager in J&K Projects Construction Corporation —a semi-government construction corporation. He was considered an honest person.
Political career
Rashid started his political career in the year 2008 after resigning from his job as a construction Engineer. After a 17-day campaign he won the constituency seat of Langate in Handwara town in Kupwara district of Jammu and Kashmir.
Arrest
In the year 2005, Rashid was arrested by SOG in Srinagar for supporting militants subsequently jailed for three months and 17 days. A charge of anti-national activities was slapped on him. He was kept in Cargo, Humhama and Raj bagh prisons. Later Chief Judaical Magistrate Srinagar dropped all charges against him on humanitarian grounds. According to Rashid he was arrested by motley group of counter-insurgents that worked closely with the State police and took him to an interrogation centre, where he was "interrogated." After five months of custody, he negotiated his release, paying up Rs. 1.5 lakh by selling his cow and some land.
Attacks
On 8 October 2015 Engineer Rashid was assaulted by BJP MLA's inside the Jammu and Kashmir assembly for hosting a party where he served beef on the lawns of the government circuit with a view to oppose the controversial central Government order banning the Beef in India. He was also attacked with black ink in Press ClubNew Delhi by BJP cadets a day after his critical comments regarding the lynching of a Kashmiri truck driver in Udhampur.
