Malaysian MAPIM Calls on Ulama to Protest Friday’s Prayer Ban in Kashmir

Kuala Lumpur, MINA – The Malaysian Islamic Negotiating Council (MAPIM) called on the Ulama to protest against the Friday prayer ban imposed in Kashmir.

“We call all world ulama of the Muslims to rise up to protest banning of Friday prayers in over four months in Kashmir’s largest mosque,” MAPIM Said on Wednesday (11/12).

MAPIM said, The right to practise one’s faith, one of the fundamental rights in the Indian constitution, was being repeatedly violated in Kashmir “since 1990 and even before that.

The 600 year old Jama Masjid, the largest mosque in Indian-occupied Kashmir’s main city of Srinagar is now cordoned by paramilitary troopers deployed around the square leading to the mosque.

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Since August 5, padlocks have been hanging from the doors of the famous mosque.

The lockdown has also included restrictions on religious gatherings in India’s only Muslim-majority region, with the authorities banning the entry of people into Kashmir’s important mosques, where devotees offered their prayers five times a day.

December 6 marked the 17th straight Friday when prayers could not take place at the mosque.

The Banning by is not the first time the prayers were stopped there. In 2016, the mosque was locked for 16 straight Fridays.

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Similar restrictions were imposed at the Bait-ul-Mukaram mosque in Anantnag district in southern Kashmir.

Similar restrictions were imposed at the Bait-ul-Mukaram Mosque in Anantnag district in southern Kashmir.

The ban on Friday prayers by India itself is not the first time. In 2016, the Jama mosque was also locked for 16 consecutive Fridays

More than 600 of them, as per official figures, continue to remain behind bars, with many among them slapped with the stringent Public Safety Act, which allows authorities to arrest anyone on mere suspicion. (R/Ast/P2)

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Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)