J&K: No annual prayer at Srinagar shrine, police cite security
The Khwaja Naqshband Sahib shrine in the old city area is visited by thousands for annual congregational prayers called Khoja Digar. These prayers were to be held on Friday.
A day after Jammu and Kashmir officially became a Union Territory, police on Friday prevented thousands of people from holding special annual prayers at a shrine in Srinagar. While the cleric of the mosque termed this an “interference in religious affairs”, police have cited the “present security situation”.
The Khwaja Naqshband Sahib shrine in the old city area is visited by thousands for annual congregational prayers called Khoja Digar. These prayers were to be held on Friday.
On Friday morning, security personnel were deployed in large numbers to prevent people from reaching the shrine.
Mohammad Tayib Kaamli, the cleric of the mosque, told The Indian Express that police informed him on Thursday that prayers won’t be allowed on Friday. “This is interference in religious affairs. This is against the Constitution and it is oppression on Kashmiris. Since 1976, this is the first time I am witnessing this,” he said.
Local residents who tried to reach the shrine had heated arguments with the security personnel. “This is our fate after we became a Union Territory. The government has now started barring us from holding the prayers too. I feel very sad,” said Ghulam Mohammed, a Srinagar resident who has been visiting the shrine for the last 32 years.
“People came and were waiting for the prayers. I saw an elderly woman having an altercation with policemen,” Moulana Khursheed Ahmad Kanoongo, a known religious figure in the Valley told The Indian Express.
Mufti Fareed ud Din, CEO of J&K Waqf Board, told The Indian Express that all preparations had been made for the prayers. “I don’t know what happened. May be due to security reasons, the prayers were not allowed,” he said.
J&K police officers said they cannot afford to have thousands of people on road in the “present security scenario”.
“It is only because of the present security scenario. In the present security situation, particularly in Srinagar, we cannot afford to have 20,000 men on road,” Srinagar SSP Haseeb Mughal told The Indian Express.
