PDP president and former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti on Monday called up separatist leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq to express her solidarity with him after a few Islamic State supporters barged into the Jama Masjid in downtown Srinagar. Mirwaiz is the custodian of the historic mosque.
The incident happened on Friday when a few masked youths barged into the mosque, shouted slogans and waved the IS flags from the pulpit of the mosque.
Mirwaiz condemned the incident and called the youths hooligans. Other separatist groups, including United Jehad Council (UJC), also condemned the incident and termed it as the desecration of the mosque.
After the incident, Mirwaiz addressed a gathering at Jama Masjid and called for unity. He also urged the need to expose the 'black sheep'.
''We need to safeguard the sacrifices by the people of Jammu and Kashmir to get their right to self-determination, freedom and their religious and political aspirations,” he said.
As condemnation poured in from various quarters, Mehbooba also expressed solidarity with Mirwaiz and reached him over phone.
''Appearance of a few youths with IS flag in Jamia Masjid Srinagar is the desecration of the most important institution of Kashmir's religious, social life. Called Mirwaiz Kashmir Umar Saheb to convey my outrage. Jamia Masjid and its pulpit are the most important landmarks of our religious, cultural moorings. Can't allow barbaric forces to defile it in the name of Islam,” she tweeted.
The call to Mirwaiz came two years after Syed Ali Geelani and Yasin Malik formed the Joined Resistance Leadership days after the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani when Mehbooba was chief minister in 2016.
On Saturday, Mehbooba also congratulated granddaughter of Geelani on passing the class X examination in a tweet.
She also visited the family of a militant in Pulwama whose sister was detained in the police station in Jammu for three days. She cautioned the government against alleged harassment of militants’ families.
She also took on her former ally, the Bharatiya Janata Party, the same day over passing of the triple talaq bill in Lok Sabha and said the bill will destroy families.
“Indian Muslims and we from J&K, which is a Muslim majority state, decided to stay with Gandhi's secular democratic India. Let us not convert it into Zia-ul-Haq's nation,” she said.
She said after creating division on religious and sectarian lines, the BJP is now trying to divide Muslim families through the triple talaq bill.
“Muslims accepted the decision of the Supreme Court on the invalidity of triple talaq, unlike the Sabarimala verdict. The best thing is to empower Muslim women to face the world independently in case of a breakup,” she said.
