Srinagar, Apr 03 (KNO): Mirwaiz Umar Farooq on Friday raised concerns over repeated restrictions on prayers at Jama Masjid, referred to reports about a recent encounter in Ganderbal and said actions by multiple agencies, including NIA, SIA, CIK and ACB, have created unease among people in Jammu and Kashmir.
In a statement issued to the news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO), a spokesperson said the Mirwaiz said after a long time, he stand before you at Jama Masjid. “Access to this central place of worship for the Muslims of Kashmir is repeatedly curtailed at the will of authorities. Eid prayer was denied, as were many Fridays during Ramazan, including the sacred night and day of shab-e-Qadr and Juma-tul-Vida,” he said.
“Such repeated restrictions are not just about closing a mosque, they speak of the larger reality, when “normalcy” is tom tomed by curbing people’s fundamental rights through bans, bars and censorship. Unfortunately the harassment of Kashmiri’s is unceasing,” said Mirwaiz.
He said, as the deeply distressing news reports of the killing of a young man, Raashid Ahmed Mughal, at Arhama, Ganderbal in a claimed encounter came yesterday, his family saying that he was a part-time computer operator with no links to militancy who was picked up and killed in cold blood, painful memories of such encounters got revived.
“His family seeks justice through an impartial probe. We can only hope that justice is done as past experiences do not inspire confidence. But let us hope that, as news came that LG sahib himself has ordered an inquiry, this time justice gets done and those responsible are held to account and punished. That his body was also not given to the family for burial is inhuman and condemnable.”
The Mirwaiz further said, then almost daily there are reports in newspapers of cases, chargesheets and arrests of Kashmiri’s by the multiple agencies operating here SIA, CIK, Cyber Cell, ACB, NIA, on one ground or another. This creates an atmosphere of fear and intimidation and reinforces the narrative that portrays an entire people as dangerous and suspect to be kept under check. This coercive policy cannot build viable peace or lead to progress if that is what the authorities seek, as they claim.—(KNO)