The historic Jama Masjid in Srinagar. File
| Photo Credit: The Hindu
The Jammu and Kashmir Police on Friday (March 28, 2025) disallowed congregational prayers at Srinagar’s Jama Masjid and lodged a First Information Report (FIR) after a Shia procession in central Kashmir observed Al-Quds Day, to express support for Palestine.
Chanting pro-Palestine slogans, hundreds of men and women marched after Friday prayers in parts of central Kashmir’s Budgam district. They were observing the last Friday of Ramzan as Al-Quds Day. Men and women were seen carrying large pro-Palestine banners and called for an end to Israeli aggression on Palestinian territories.
Meanwhile, in north Kashmir’s Baramulla, a case under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) was registered against locals involved in promoting terrorism by displaying Hezbollah flags and raising slogans in support of the militant group. In a similar instance, police lodged a case in Pattan after a group of people who were seen carrying Hezbollah flags, placards, and banners featuring the photograph of a slain Hezbollah commander during a procession in Chainabal, Pattan.
The police urged citizens to maintain peace and refrain from any activities that could disturb public order.
Mirwaiz expresses concern
In Srinagar, the Jama Masjid remained closed and no Friday prayers were allowed by police. “After Shab-e-Qadr, Jama Masjid Srinagar continues to remain closed to people and I was under house detention on Juma-Tul-Vida, when lakhs of people eagerly await the whole year to offer congregational prayers on this blessed Friday for great reward and blessing from Allah,” Kashmir’s chief cleric Mirwaiz Umar Farooq said.
He said the most important centre of Kashmir’s religious identity and affinity was being “repeatedly targeted and peoples fundamental right to religious practice curbed”.
“When tall claims of normalcy are trumpeted every day? Those ruling in peoples name cannot absolve themselves from standing up to address this gross injustice towards Muslims of the valley and the repeated closure of Jama Masjid,” the Mirwaiz said.
Peoples Democratic Party leader Iltija Mufti and National Conference Member of Parliament Aga Ruhullah have condemned the move to close Jama Masjid on religious occasions for Muslims of Kashmir.
“When you lock the doors of a mosque on Laylat-ul-Qadr, you confess your fear of a people’s faith. You shackle not a structure, but the hearts of Kashmiris on a night Allah calls ‘greater than a thousand months’. By no measure is this governance, it is cowardice,” Mr. Ruhullah said.
He had urged Muslims to observe Friday as Youm al-Quds to express solidarity with Palestine. “We will remember Palestine’s martyrs and Kashmir’s prisoners. Our faith is not confined to mosques, it rises in streets, cells, and the unseen spaces where colonial policies turn to dust,” he added.
Published – March 29, 2025 01:55 am IST
