Srinagar, July 19 -- As National Conference (NC) legislators and leaders begin leaving for New Delhi, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Awami Ittehad Party (AIP) have announced they will not participate in the Jantar Mantar protest. The AIP, however, said that Baramulla MP Er Rashid will go barefoot to Parliament and observe a hunger strike on July 20, in solidarity with the statehood protest. Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti, in a letter to NC president Farooq Abdullah, said that the PDP will join the Jantar Mantar protest only if the restoration of Article 370, the release of political prisoners, and the lifting of the ban on Jamaat are central to its agenda. AIP chief spokesperson Inam Un Nabi, along with other senior leaders of the party, read out the message sent by Er Rashid from Tihar Jail at a press conference. Nabi, quoting the MP Baramulla's message, said: "I do not want to add bitterness towards anyone, but before asking the AIP to support its protest for the restoration of statehood, the NC leadership needs to be reminded of its intentional and organised betrayals, which the party indulged in to sabotage the AIP's sincere and much-needed initiatives, including the clemency resolution for Afzal Guru in the Assembly, protection of the Right to Eat, observance of State Flag Day, declaring June 7 as a State Holiday, and protecting the human rights of the people of J&K. The NC and the other constituents of the so-called Gupkar Alliance have wilfully helped the BJP Government strengthen its narrative and shift the goalposts by confining themselves only to the demand for restoration of statehood." The message from the jailed MP further said that the NC cannot distance itself from the fact that it secured an absolute majority in the 2024 Assembly elections only after assuring the people that it would fight for the restoration of autonomy in its original form, in accordance with the resolution passed by the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly in 1999. "To express our solidarity with the NC's proposed protest on July 20, I will observe a day-long hunger strike and walk barefoot to Parliament on July 21 to stress the need for a meaningful dialogue between the Centre and the elected representatives, along with other legitimate stakeholders of Jammu and Kashmir," Er Rashid said. Nabi said that the AIP has always stood for the restoration of the complete political and constitutional rights of the people of J&K. PDP president Mufti, in her letter to the NC president, said that it would not be in the fitness of things for them to participate in a protest whose raison d'etre is solely and exclusively the demand for statehood....