SRINAGAR — Armymen stormed inside a Mosque in Zadoora village in Pulwama district of South Kashmir and allegedly forced Muslims to chant “Jai Shri Ram” slogns during pre-dawn prayers on Saturday.
According to the Indian Express report, the villagers claimed that the call for prayers from the Rajab Sahib mosque was interrupted. While the muezzin (who calls for prayer) was halfway through the azaan on the loudspeaker, the Armymen entered the mosque and asked him to chant ‘Jai Shree Ram’. They themselves also chanted the slogan.
Following the incident, senior Army and police officers visited the village and assured that they would look into the matter, the newspaper reported.
Soon after the incident, People’s Democratic Party (PDP) President Mehbooba Mufti said she was shocked to learn about army troops from 50 RR storming into a mosque at Pulwama & forcing muslims inside to chant ‘Jai Shree Ram’.
Such a move when Amit Shah is here & that too ahead of yatra is simply an act of provocation, she said.
She also requested the General Officer Commanding (GOC) 15 Corps Rajiv Ghai to set up a probe immediately.
“Shocked to hear about army troops from 50 RR storming into a mosque at Pulwama & forcing muslims inside to chant ‘Jai Shree Ram’. Such a move when @AmitShah is here & that too ahead of yatra is simply an act of provocation. Request @RgGhai to immediately set up a probe,” the former Chief Minister tweeted.
“Reports of security force personnel entering a mosque in Zadoora in Pulwama are deeply distressing. It’s bad enough they entered but then forcing people to chant slogans like “Jai Shree Ram” as reported by the locals there, is unacceptable,” National Conference (NC) Vice-President and former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said in a tweet.
Meanwhile, Muttahida Majlis-e-Ulama (MMU) Jammu and Kashmir expressed serious concern and strongly condemned the incident that took place in Masjid Sharief of Zadoora in south Kashmir’s Pulwama district, on the night of June 23 and 24, wherein the personnel of the Army’s 50 Battalion Rashtriya Rifles harassed the local people and forced them to raise non-Muslim slogans from the mosque.
MMU said, the silence maintained by the authorities in this regard is unacceptable. It asked them to clarify their position in this regard as the religious sentiments of Muslims of J&K have been badly hurt and people are shocked.
The MMU expressed concern over the fact that the government-backed institutions in Jammu and Kashmir are increasingly interfering with the management and working of mosques, shrines, imambaras and other religious institutions, saying this is causing distress which needs to be addressed.
MMU also called for immediate and unconditional release of the MMU patron Mirwaiz-e-Kashmir Dr Moulvi Muhammad Umar Farooq who has been under arbitrary detention for the last four years, and other imprisoned religious leaders and preachers, before the auspicious occasion of Eid-ul-Azha.