SRINAGAR: The head cleric of historic Jamia Masjid on Friday demanded release of moderate Hurriyat Conference leader and cleric Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, who is under house detention since over three years, after he was again barred from offering Friday prayers today despite Lt Governor Manoj Sinha saying about a month back that Mirwaiz was a free man and there were no restriction on his movement.
Mirwaiz was again barred from leaving his house at Nageen, where he is under house detention since August 4, 2019, a day before centre scrapped J&K’s special status and bifurcated J&K state into two Union Territories.
Anjuman Auqaf Jamia Masjid, which runs the affairs of Kashmir’s grand mosque, said the religious and cultural sovereignty of people of Kashmir is being undermined and trampled upon and keeping Mirwaiz away from his role as cleric seems to be part of that thought.
Head cleric of Jamia, Ahmed Syed Naqshbandi while addressing Friday congregation denounced the administration for lying about Mirwaiz’s release and making false promises of allowing him to visit Jamia to deliver the Friday sermon and offer prayers in the grand mosque.
While condemning Mirwaiz’s detention, he said all his fundamental human rights have been curbed.
He asked Lt Governor Manoj Sinha to walk his talk (about Mirwaiz’s release) and set him free.
Lt Governor Sinha in an interview to BBC last month had claimed that Mirwaiz was neither arrested nor is under house detention and no restrictions were placed on his movement.
Sinha said in 2019 (referring to scrapping of Article 370), PSA was not invoked against Mirwaiz. “He has not been detained”.
He said there are no restrictions on him from authorities and he is free to go anywhere.
“Mirwaiz has not been stopped from going out. For his safety, the security men are deployed around his house and directions have been given that if he moves out, security should be provided to him and there should be no restrictions,” added Sinha.