Mosques locked, prayer leaders arrested in IOK

SRINAGAR: Indian authorities locked several mosques and arrested several prayer leaders in Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK), as people broke curfew on Friday, the 47th day of complete lockdown.

It was a dark Eid for 11-year-old Saeed Mutaiba this August. When she returned home from a brief vacation at her grandfather’s house, she discovered police taking away her father, Mohammed Ameen, a prayer leader at Jamia Masjid in Awantipora, in the strife-torn region of IOK. She, her mother and her 6-year-old brother have repeatedly visited the police station to appeal for his release — in vain.

“He looked tired. I felt helpless that I couldn’t do anything for him,” says the young girl. A secular democracy, India has long tried to avoid emphasising the religious undertones to the conflict in Kashmir, blaming it instead solely on Pakistan. But in recent months, police have stepped up arrests of Ulema and prayer leaders and clamped down on mosques in the held valley. That has coincided with the Indian government’s move on Aug 5 to strip off the constitutional provisions of autonomy IOK enjoyed while placing the region under lockdown. Though there is no official number of arrests, the government’s approach — which it argues is necessary for the region’s security — threatens India’s credibility, say analysts.

Ameen, 39, was arrested on Aug 6. In June, the police arrested a cleric in north Kashmir’s Kupwara district. In March, two imams in south Kashmir’s Pulwama were arrested. The head of a religious body was denied a passport after he was charged with “anti-India” activities. Since Aug. 5, policemen in plainclothes are also recording the khutbahs (sermons) read out in mosques after Friday prayers, law enforcement officials concede. On Eid, Jamia Masjid and the Hazratbal Shrine — two of Kashmir’s most iconic shrines — were shut.

Donations made to Baitulmal, the charity fund in mosques, are being monitored. Police are asking clerics to divulge details of relatives living in Kashmir and in Pakistan. Their bank accounts are being scrutinised, officials say, arguing that these moves are aimed at preventing the radicalisation of youth in mosques.

Hafsa Kanjwal, assistant professor of history at Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania, says the current Indian government sees the Muslim identity of Kashmiris as a threat. She says the efforts to exert control over religious spaces and leaders “is not surprising.”

Some clerics point to the fact that especially over the past five years since Modi came to power, many educated Kashmiris, including engineers, research scholars and professors, have joined militancy. “If mosques are the only places of radicalisation, then why would a research scholar or engineer join militancy?,” asks Hilal Ahmed, a 29-year-old imam at a Srinagar mosque.

But the government’s strategy could backfire, caution analysts. “Long detentions of religious leaders … [instead] of the narrow targeting of the troublemakers, will be interpreted as a broader communal assault on the Muslims,” Sahni warns.

Meanwhile, people staged forceful demonstrations in central, north and south IOK on Friday against the Indian occupation and repeal of special status of the territory by Narendra Modi-led communal Indian government.

Soon after Juma congregational prayers, people took to the streets in Srinagar, Bandipora, Baramulla, Kupwara, Islamabad, Pulwama, Kulgam, Shopian and other areas of the occupied territory. They raised high-pitched pro-freedom and anti-India slogans. Indian troops and police personnel fired teargas shells and pellets on protesters at several places, injuring many of them. The occupation authorities had imposed restrictions in Srinagar, Kupwara, Handwara, Ganderbal, Islamabad and Bijbehara areas to prevent demonstrations. The authorities did not allow people to offer Juma prayers in many major mosques including Srinagar’s Jamia Masjid, Dargah Hazratbal, Dastgir Sahib, Charar-e-Sharif and Jamia Masjid Kishtwar. Meanwhile, normal life remained paralyzed in the Kashmir valley on the 47th consecutive day, today. The residents are virtually observing civil curfew to register their protest against scraping of special status of occupied Kashmir by the Indian government. All markets, business establishments, shops and educational institutions remained closed while transport was off the road. Presence of government employees in the offices remains thin. Communications links including internet and mobile phone services remain suspended and TV channels closed in Kashmir valley and Muslim-majority areas of Jammu.

On the other hand, a spokesman for UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres at a press briefing in New York said the UN chief plans to raise the Kashmir dispute during his discussions with various leaders attending the upcoming 74th session of the General Assembly.