Eid prayers barred at Srinagar’s Jamia Masjid for eighth consecutive year, says Kashmir chief cleric

The authorities in Jammu and Kashmir on Wednesday barred Eid prayers at the Jamia Masjid in Srinagar for the eighth consecutive year and placed Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, who traditionally leads the prayers, under house detention, he alleged.

Farooq said on social media that Muslims in Kashmir had again been denied the right to offer Eid prayers at the Jamia Masjid. He said that on the occasion of Eid, people in Kashmir were met with “barricades, restrictions, locked gates and intimidation”.

“This is not governance; it is a systematic assault on our religious identity, dignity and fundamental rights which deeply hurts us,” he said.

Eid-al-Adha, also known as Bakrid, is a Muslim festival that commemorates the spirit of sacrifice. The festival is traditionally marked by the slaughtering of goats.

Farooq said that it was unfortunate that the children in Kashmir were growing up without witnessing the “spiritually uplifting Eid prayers” at the Eidgah and the associated festivities. He said that an entire generation was being deprived of traditions and memories that had shaped the collective life of Kashmiris for centuries.

Kashmir’s chief cleric further stated that “faith cannot be imprisoned or suppressed through force” and asserted that “no power on earth can erase” the spiritual bond the people “share with Eidgah, Jama Masjid...

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