‘Is offering funeral prayers a crime in your Naya Kashmir?,’ Mirwaiz asks Sinha
Srinagar: Senior All Parties Hurriyat Conference leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq has condemned the latest restrictions imposed by authorities, describing them as an infringement on basic religious rights and freedoms.
According to Kashmir Media Service, Mirwaiz, who was once again placed under house arrest, was barred from attending a condolence gathering for his uncle, Mirwaiz Moulvi Muhammad Ahmad Shah, son of Mirwaiz Moulana Muhammad Yusuf Shah (RA) and brother-in-law of Mirwaiz Moulvi Farooq.
The gathering, planned at the ancestral Mirwaiz Manzil in Srinagar, was to be followed by an absentia funeral prayer at Srinagar’s Central Jamia Masjid. However, authorities led by Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha closed both venues, effectively preventing the assembly and any community expression of condolences.
In a statement, Mirwaiz expressed profound disappointment, emphasizing that the authorities’ actions denied him the opportunity to mourn publicly and restricted thousands who wished to extend their condolences. “The administration not only closed the historic Mirwaiz Manzil but also locked down the Central Jamia Masjid, preventing the absentia funeral prayer,” Mirwaiz stated. According to him, officials from the Anjuman Auqaf Jama Masjid were informed that an FIR would be filed if the prayer in absentia proceeded.
Mirwaiz criticized the Indian authoriteis’ approach, calling it an infringement on personal freedoms and a disregard for the religious and emotional sentiments of the community. He questioned the sincerity of Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha’s claims of creating a “Naya Kashmir,” stating, “How can there be talk of a ‘Naya Kashmir’ when even a basic human right to collective condolence is denied, and religious rites are suppressed?”
