No Eid prayers at Jamia mosque, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq put under house arrest

Srinagar, April 10

The Jammu and Kashmir administration on Wednesday disallowed congregational Eid prayers at the historic Jamia Masjid in Srinagar.

The authorities locked the grand mosque of Srinagar for worshippers on Wednesday morning and put the Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, who was supposed to address the Eid congregation at the mosque, under house arrest. Mirwaiz said it was for the fifth consecutive year that the administration disallowed Eid prayers at the Jamia Masjid and placed him under house arrest.

In a statement, Anjuman Auqaf Jamia Masjid, the managing body of mosque, said the police personnel locked the gates of the mosque after morning prayers on Wednesday without any written explanation. Anjuman stated that the action represents a distressing infringement on “our religious freedoms and rights of our Muslim community, marking the third instance within the week that faithful devotees have been unjustly denied access to their largest place of worship.” Eid was celebrated on Wednesday across J&K after the crescent was sighted in the region on Tuesday evening.