Hurriyat leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq was disallowed to address Friday congregation for the third consecutive week at the historic Jama Masjid in Srinagar as the locals termed it as interference in religious affairs of muslims.
The Anjuman Auqaf which runs the affairs of the Jama Masjid Srinagar denounced the continuous house detention of Mirwaiz stating that the administration imposes arbitrary and unjustified restrictions on the religious functioning of Mirwaiz-e-Kashmir.
“In such bitter cold, thousands of devoted men, women, children and physically challenged persons from various parts of the Valley gather at the historic central Jama Masjid in Srinagar to listen to the sermon of their beloved Mirwaiz,” read the statement. They said that the action of the authorities of keeping him under house arrest at his Nigeen residence “deeply hurts the sentiments of these devotees and deprives them of their religious freedoms.”
The Auqaf members lamented that the Lieutenant Governor administration “through these arbitrary measures continuously disregard and disrespect the religious sentiments and emotions of the people.” “Such measures also amount to interference in religious affairs of Muslims which is highly condemnable,” read the statement. Zainab Begum, 60, a local devotee, who has offered Friday prayers at Jama Masjid for several decades said that she is extremely hurt by the continuous detention of Mirwaiz, who she has heard on Friday’s for many years now.
“He was already detained for around four years and now despite their claims of normalcy he is not allowed to fulfil his religious duty, in a muslim majority region,” she added.
The Hurriyat leader was released on September 22 in 2023, after four years of house arrest, since his detention on August 4, 2019 when special status of J&K was revoked and the erstwhile state was downgraded into the two Union Territories of J&K and Ladakh.
However, fearing pro-Palestinian protests after the Friday prayers in the second week of October in 2023, the authorities locked him up again and disallowed the Friday prayers at Jama Masjid. Since then the authorities have put him under house arrest and disallowed to address Friday congregations intermittently. Mirwaiz has approached J&K High Court challenging his ‘detention without any reason’ and the matter is pending there.
