Srinagar, Nov 03 (KNO): The Muttahida Majlis-e-Ulama (MMU) on Tuesday postponed its first district-level Ulema meeting, scheduled for Wednesday at Darul Uloom Raheemiyah in Bandipora, citing the continued house arrest of its patron, Mirwaiz-e-Kashmir Umar Farooq, for the past three days and uncertainty over his participation.
In a statement issued to the news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO), an MMU spokesperson said the meeting was being organised as a follow-up to the one-day Ulema conference convened by the MMU on September 15, 2026, in Srinagar, which brought together more than 70 prominent religious scholars representing different schools of thought and regions of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh.
He said the conference had identified serious societal and environmental challenges and deliberated on the role of Ulema in addressing them. The issues included promoting inter-sect harmony, drug and substance abuse, suicides and self-harm, mental and emotional distress among youth, irresponsible use of social media, weakening family bonds, moral decline, the growing disconnect of young people from religious and community institutions, and environmental degradation.
The spokesperson said it was decided at the conference to hold district-level meetings across Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh to widen the scope of the initiative and take its deliberations forward. Accordingly, the first such meeting was scheduled to be held in Bandipora on Wednesday.
He said all arrangements for the meeting had been completed and prominent Ulema were expected to participate. However, continued restrictions on Mirwaiz had created uncertainty over his participation, leaving the organisers with no option but to postpone the meeting.
Terming the continued house arrest unfortunate and condemnable, the MMU said the restrictions interfere with the religious and social responsibilities of Mirwaiz and obstruct collective efforts by religious scholars towards social reform, unity and community welfare.—(KNO)