Out on parole, Amritpal Singh and Engineer Rashid take oath as Lok Sabha members

Khalistani sympathiser Amritpal Singh and Kashmiri leader Sheikh Abdul Rashid (also known as Engineer Rashid), who were released on parole, took oath as members of the Lok Sabha on Friday.

Their swearing-in was held amid heavy deployment of security personnel in and around the Parliament building.

According to a report by news agency PTI citing a source, the MPs-elect took oath in the chamber of the Lok Sabha speaker after completing formalities.

Both of them were brought to the Parliament complex by security personnel on Friday morning.

While Amritpal Singh (31) is lodged in a prison in Assam’s Dibrugarh district for cases registered under the National Security Act, Rashid (56) is in Delhi’s Tihar jail in a terror funding case registered under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

For taking the oath, Singh was granted a four-day parole, beginning July 5, in view of travel from Assam to Delhi and back, while Rashid was granted a two-hour parole, excluding travel time from Tihar to Parliament.

Amritpal and Rashid won the Lok Sabha elections from Khadoor Sahib in Punjab and Baramulla in Jammu and Kashmir, respectively, as independent candidates.

According to their parole orders, both Amritpal and Rashid are to be accompanied by security personnel at all times during their parole periods.

During their period of temporary release, they are not allowed to speak to or address the media on any issue or make any statements.

Their family members are also prohibited from making a statement in any form of media.

Amritpal, chief of Waris Punjab De group, was arrested in April 2023 from Amritsar for barging into a police station in February and clashing with police personnel in a bid to free one of his aides from custody.

Rashid, a former MLA, was arrested in 2017 in connection with a case of funding terrorist groups and separatists in the Kashmir valley.