KO photo by Abid Bhat
Srinagar– The local authorities disallowed the congregational prayer on ‘Jumat-ul-Vida’ (last Friday of Ramzan) at the Jamia Masjid here, the grand mosque’s managing body said.
Anjuman Auqaf Jamia Masjid — the managing body of the mosque located in the city’s Nowhatta area — said in a statement that the district magistrate and police officials visited the mosque on Friday morning and asked the management to lock the gates as “the administration had decided that ‘Jumat-ul-Vida prayers will not be allowed at the mosque”.
“The Auqaf strongly resents this move of the authorities causing great distress to lakhs of Muslims, who traditionally come from all parts of the Valley to offer prayers on the last and greatly blessed Friday of Ramzan in Jamia Masjid where offering prayers on (the) last Friday has great significance,” the statement said.
National Conference (NC) president Farooq Abdullah also expressed regret over the disallowing of the congregational prayers at the Jamia Masjid here.
“I regret this,” Abdullah told reporters at the Hazratbal Shrine here when asked about the administration’s decision to disallow congregational prayers on the occasion of the ‘Jumat-ul-Vida.
“If the situation is good, then why the prayers were not allowed at Jamia Masjid?” Abdullah, the Lok Sabha MP from Srinagar, questioned.
Last month, the authorities disallowed the ‘Shab-e-Barat’ congregational prayers at the mosque.
Abdullah also pooh-poohed administration for continued house detention of Mirwaiz Umar Farooq. “The time has come, when they say the situation is right, that he (Mirwaiz) should be released so that he offers Namaz and preaches to the people,” he said.
Abdullah said it is important as the situation is such that today we have forgotten God, and have left the right path.
“So, it is important that he (Mirwaiz) comes and preaches to the people and prays for all of us so that we tread the right path,” the former Union minister, said.
Reacting sharply to the development, former chief minister Omar Abdullah said the administration was betraying its own claims of normality in the Valley by locking the gates of the grand mosque.
“We are constantly treated to claims of normalcy in J&K and yet the administration betrays its own claims when it resorts to locking up one of our holiest mosques thus denying people the chance to offer prayers on the last Friday of Ramzan,” Abdullah, the National Conference vice president, wrote on Twitter.
Meanwhile Mirwaiz Umer Farooq led amalgam also said the closure of the mosque “belied” the government’s claim of normalcy in J&K.
“The prolonged house arrest of Mirwaiz Umar Farooq since August 2019, even in the holy month of Ramzan despite appeals from all quarters for his release, barring him from his religious obligations as the Mirwaiz is greatly regrettable. It defies the authorities’ claim that ‘all is well now’ in Naya Kashmir,” the Hurriyat said in a statement here.
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