The Hurriyat Conference led by separatist leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and managing body of Jamia Masjid Srinagar on Friday deplored the continued house detention of Mirwaiz Umar Farooq.
The separatist leader, who is also chief priest of the Jamia Masjid, has been under house detention since August 5, 2019, when the special status of Jammu and Kashmir was revoked and the region split into two union territories.
All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC), in a statement, said its chairman who is also the chief priest of Kashmir’s grand mosque, completed a record 200 Fridays of “being barred from delivering the Friday sermon” from the pulpit of Jamia Masjid Srinagar.
“He continues to be under arbitrary house detention since August 2019. This is a cause of great anguish and dismay… On this occasion a protest was held by men and women in Jama Masjid today, reiterating the demand for the release of their religious leader,” the statement added.
The statement further said the “suspension of Mirwaiz’s fundamental human rights is a far cry from PM Narendra Modi’s big shout out to democracy and its values in his address to the US congress” just a day ago on his visit there. “The difference of opinion or approach is fundamental to democracy as a medium and detaining people arbitrarily for that reason is antithetical to it,” it said.
The Hurriyat said that it wanted PM Modi to revisit the path tread by his predecessor Atal Bihari Vajpayee wherein he talked of “Jamhooriyat, Insaaniyat aur Kashmiriyat (democracy, humanity and Kashmiriyat)” in J&K, as a the policy of resolving issues and to bring lasting peace and stability in the region.
Meanwhile, on behalf of Anjuman Auqaf Jama Masjid, the managing body of the mosque, Imam Hai Ahmed Syed Naqdhbandi expressed dismay that despite repeated appeals to allow Mirwaiz to come to Jamia Masjid to resume his responsibilities, the authorities are not paying any heed.
