Notice to cleric for ‘defaming’ Sumbal girls

Srinagar, June 7

A Muslim cleric has been served a notice for resorting to ‘character assassination’ of girls from Sumbal area of north Kashmir.

A video of the cleric had gone viral in which he was delivering a sermon. He was seen defaming girls of the Sumbal area in the video, which drew strong criticism, with people seeking action against him.

The court of Sumbal SDM Syed Shahnawaz Bukhari took cognizance of the matter and issued a notice to the cleric, Moulvi Bilal, a resident of Nadroogund, Srinagar, and asked him to appear before the court on June 11.

Moulvi, in his sermon, said a disciple of his had spotted a couple getting physically intimate in a car few days ago. He cited another instance, wherein he claimed that a health official showed him the 2018 health records of Kashmir, which revealed that 18,000 unmarried girls had taken contraceptives to abort pregnancies in a north Kashmir area.

“This moron claims that 18,000 unmarried girls in Sumbal alone have swallowed contraceptive pills. From where does he get these statistics. And he is speaking this from the pulpit of a mosque. I wonder how do people even tolerate these pervert moulvis,” wrote Khalid Gul on his Facebook page.

Another Facebook user said Bilal had quoted same figures of abortion by unmarried girls for Tral during a recent speech at a mosque in south Kashmir. — TNS