For the first time in the Valley, a sitting legislator, along with thousands of his supporters, is on a sit-in outside a police station to protest alleged atrocities by the Army.

“I have been witnessing torture of my people by the Army for the past several days,” Engineer Rashid, MLA from Langate in north Kashmir, who is on a sit-in outside Handwara police station, said. “I asked them several times to desist from it. But nobody listened to my appeals. Enough is enough. I am part of my people and have to raise my voice against it”.

Rashid said the Army men posted in Langate torture people without any reason and demand identity cards from women. “They pluck the hair of the villagers and sometime beat them ruthlessly without any provocation,” Rashid said.

The protest, Rashid said, would continue till the government agrees to his various demands.