Achi news desk-
On April 6, the management committee of the Jama Masjid in Nohta, Srinagar, the Anjuman Awqaf Jama Masjid, said on Friday that the authorities have closed the doors of the mosque and said that Taraweeh and Shab Khwani will not be allowed in the mosque on Shab al-Qadr It is feared that even Eid prayers will not be allowed this week.
Jama Masjid (Photo courtesy: X/@MirwaizManzil)
New Delhi: Authorities in Kashmir did not allow worship on the occasion of Shab Qadr at Jama Masjid in Srinagar on Saturday (April 6). Hurriyat Chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq has allegedly been detained again.
According to the report, Mirwaiz said the act amounted to ‘repression’ and ‘an attack on the religious freedom and rights of Kashmiri Muslims’.
He said, ‘This oppression of Kashmiri Muslims should end now.’
Speaking to The Wire, Mirwaiz said that insulting the sentiments and religious sentiments of Muslims in Kashmir is “unacceptable and highly undesirable”.
He added, ‘It is beyond understanding how the authorities can target the most religious place again and again and at such an important time, placing me under house arrest can cause problems and possibly cause suffering to people.
To be clear, the management committee of the 14th century mosque in Srinagar’s Nohta area, Anjuman Awqaf Jama Masjid, said in a statement on April 6 that the authorities had closed the gates and asked worshipers to leave the mosque premises. on Saturday afternoon. The statement added that the Awqaf had been informed that Taraweeh and Shab Khwani would not be allowed in the Jamia Masjid on the holy occasion of Shab al-Qadr.
A large number of police and paramilitary forces were also deployed outside the main gate of Mirwaiz’s residence in Srinagar’s Nagin area, eyewitnesses said. The mosque’s management committee said Mirwaiz was allegedly placed under house arrest.
The statement also said that Anjuman Awqaf expresses deep disappointment over this decision by the authorities and strongly condemns this oppressive move.
Apart from Kashmir’s largest Jama Masjid, mosques and other important religious places of Jammu and Kashmir offered peaceful worship to Shab Qadr on Saturday in which thousands of men and women participated.
Earlier on Friday, the Jama Masjid, which has been the epicenter of separatist sentiments in Kashmir, was closed by the authorities without giving any written reason.
Notably, Friday prayers were also not allowed and Mirwaiz, who has challenged his ‘illegal and arbitrary detention’ in the Jammu and Kashmir High Court, is said to have been placed under house arrest again on Saturday.
The authorities also stopped a press conference called by Mirwaiz in response to his detention and the closure of the Jamia Masjid, and media covering the incident were turned away by security personnel from the leader’s residence Hurriyat.
Mirwaiz, who earlier took part in the ‘Trek-to-Dialogue’ between India and Pakistan on Kashmir, described his imprisonment as ‘very sad and unfortunate’. He had said that this had caused “great trouble and pain” to the people of Jammu and Kashmir.
He had said, ‘We… are protesting against this dictatorship and against our religious rights directly.’
Mirwaiz, who is also Kashmir’s leading religious scholar, was allowed to offer Friday prayers at the Jamia Masjid for the first time during Ramadan last month after the abrogation of Article 370. It was the fourth time he was allowed after being released in September last year.
Meanwhile, the authorities are also unlikely to allow Eid prayers at the Jama Masjid, which will be held next Wednesday or Thursday.
Notably, no Eid prayers were held in this mosque since August 5, 2019, when Jammu and Kashmir was divided into two Union Territories.
Earlier this month, Darshan Andrabi, head of the Jammu and Kashmir Waqf Board, the governing body for some important religious places and mosques in the Union Territory, said that the Eidgah Maidan in Srinagar was not suitable for the upcoming Eid prayers. .
Andrabi said, ‘The country is in a bad state. Our people have ruined it in recent years and it looks like a playground. Recovery will require considerable time and resources. A new platform is being built and a tender has already been issued. But when the land itself is not healthy, how is the prayer (Eid) offered there?
