SRINAGAR: Jammu and Kashmir Lt Governor Manoj Sinha has said Hurriyat leader and cleric Mirwaiz Umar Farooq is a free man and not under detention while the management of Kashmir’s grand mosque – Jamia Masjid- on Friday contradicted this statement.
Mirwaiz Umar Farooq was placed under house arrest by authorities on August 4, 2019, a day before the scrapping of Articles 370 and 35A by the centre, at his residence in the Nageen area of Srinagar.
In an interview with The New Indian Express, Lt Governor Manoj Sinha said Mirwaiz is a free man.
“He is not under detention. There are no restrictions on his movement. He can go anywhere,” said Sinha.
However, Anjuman Auqaf Jamia Masjid, the management body of the grand mosque, said Mirwaiz is under house arrest since August 4, 2019, and yesterday marked the completion of 4 years in detention, during which he was not allowed to offer Friday congregational prayers nor give Friday sermons at the historic Jamia Masjid in Srinagar.
“While all other religious activities are permitted and facilitated by the authorities, it is openly discriminatory that Mirwaiz is barred from his duties as a Muslim head of J&K,” it said.
Anjuman Auqaf said that people present in Jamia Masjid to offer Friday prayers staged a peaceful protest against the continued incarceration of Mirwaiz. "They were demanding his immediate release."
In August last year, Lt Governor Sinha had claimed that Mirwaiz was a free man and there were no restrictions on his movement.
“In 2019 (referring to the scrapping of Article 370), PSA was not invoked against Mirwaiz. He has not been detained. 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,” Sinha had said.
However, on August 26, a week after Lt Governor’s statement, Mirwaiz attempted to move out of his Nageen residence in a vehicle. The policemen deployed outside his residence intercepted the vehicle near the gate and did not allow Mirwaiz to move out.