Shehla Rashid's father alleges daughter sent him death threats, demands probe against her NGOs

Jammu: Abdul Rashid Shora, the estranged father of student activist Shehla Rashid, on Monday levelled serious allegations against her, demanding that a probe be initiated into her NGOs and also accused her of having taken a huge amount of money for joining politics in Kashmir valley, a charge denied by her. Shehla termed her father’s statement “absolutely disgusting and baseless” and said this was his reaction after a court barred him entry into their Srinagar house on 17 November in response to a complaint filed by the family against him under domestic violence. Releasing a three-page letter addressed to the Director General of Police at a press conference, Shora claimed that he is facing a threat to his life from Shehla, her security guard, sister and her mother. He also demanded a probe into the Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), being run by Shehla, and the bank accounts of his daughters and their mother. “She had taken Rs three crore to join politics in Kashmir from (former MLA) Engineer Rashid and (businessman) Zahoor Watali (both of whom were arrested last year by the National Investigation Agency for their alleged involvement in terror funding case),” Shora claimed. Shehla, a former JNU student leader, joined politics and became a founding member of JK Political Movement floated by IAS topper turned politician Shah Faesal. However, she later announced her “dissociation with the electoral mainstream in Kashmir” last year. Shehla tweeted a detailed response to her father’s allegations saying “Many of you must have come across a video of my biological father making wild allegations against me and my mum and sis. To keep it short and straight, he’’s a wife-beater and an abusive, depraved man. We finally decided to act against him, and this stunt is a reaction to that.” Terming the allegations “absolutely disgusting and baseless”, she said the fact of the matter is that they have filed a complaint of domestic violence with a court in Kashmir against her father and it has passed an order restraining his entry into their home. “My mother has tolerated abuse, violence and mental torture all her life. She has kept quiet for the sake of respect for the family…now that we have started speaking up against his physical and mental abuse, he has started abusing us too,” she said, requesting everyone not to take him seriously.