SRINAGAR: Rallies and demonstrations have been planned following Friday prayers across Kashmir on the last Friday of Ramazan (tomorrow) to demand liberation of Masjid-Al Aqsa, the first Qibla of Muslims.
Muslims lost Al-Aqsa and adjacent Masjid Al-Sakhra (Dome of the Rock), the third holiest place in Islam following defeat of Muslims by Zionist Israel in 1948.
In 1979, following the triumph of Islamic Revolution in Iran, Imam Roohullah Khomeini, who toppled the key US client state in the region, declared Jummat-ul-Vida as Yaum-al-Quds.
Mass rallies are held across globe, except in Arab countries ruled by totalitarian regimes, against the continued occupation of Jerusalem known in Arabic as Al-Quds.
In Kashmir this year the call for Al-Quds day rallies has been jointly issued by leaders of multi-party Hurriyat Conference and Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF).
The joint appeal for mass demonstrations has been issued by the leaders of both the factions of Hurriyat Conference, Syed Ali Geelani and Kashmir’s head priest Mirwaiz Dr Muhammad Umer Farooq besides JKLF Chairman Muhammad Yasin Malik.
Mirwaiz will be addressing a mammoth congregation of fasting Muslims in historic Grand Mosque of Srinagar. It is not yet clear whether octogenarian Syed Geelani will be allowed to offer Friday prayers as he has been under continued house detention for last more than one year. Malik too has been in and out of jail since the beginning of this year.
Lawyers Club, a body of young Kashmiri lawyers too have extended support to Al-Quds day rallies while scores of political and religious bodies are gearing up for seminars and demonstrations on the occasion.
Prominent organisations who have also announced programmes on the day include Ittehad-al-Muslimeen led by senior separatist leader Maulana Muhammad Abbas Ansari and Anjuman-e-Sharie Shiayan of Agha Syed Hassan al-Musavi.
Massive rallies are also planned in frontier region of Ladakh. Here official estimates suggest participation of tens of thousands in rallies planned in the Kargil district.
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