Scholars urge prayer leaders to highlight Indian atrocities

ISLAMABAD: The International Union of Muslim Scholars has urged prayer leaders and preachers to highlight the sufferings of Muslims living in India and IIOJ&K in upcoming Friday sermons.

The IUMS, in coordination with various associations and bodies of the Muslim countries’ scholars from all over the world, held a virtual conference in support of Muslims in India and IIOJ&K to discuss the arbitrary procedures, injustice and persecution faced by them.

The scholars expressed concern over the plight of Muslims in the Indian state of Assam, where more than 1,500 soldiers and policemen destroyed Muslim homes, schools and mosques by using bulldozers on 25 September 2021, adding that the Indian forces resorted to shooting, killing and wounding innocent children when people protested against the highhandedness. Besides, the incident rendered the huge Muslim population homeless.

The participants of the conference also dwelled on the issue of IIOJ&K. They said that prisons were overcrowded in the occupied Kashmir amid the fascist rule of Bharatiya Janata Party led by Narendra Modi. They also criticized the Indian move of repealing articles 35 and 370 that had authorized Kashmiris to enjoy administrative rights, such as the ability to draft their own constitution and right to abstain from selling property to non-Kashmiris.

The conference was virtually attended by the heads and members of various Muslim scholar bodies across the world, which demonstrated their commitment to support their Muslim brothers.

The conference observed that the arbitrary and unjust practices were consistent with the policies of British era that wanted to create divisions among all sects of the Indian society.

The participants called upon the Muslim countries and organizations, particularly the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), Arab League and Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) to play their role in stopping the Indian government from committing heinous crimes against the Muslims in India and IIOJ&K by pressurizing Modi regime through political and economic means.