SRI NAGAR: Hardline Kashmiri separatist leader Aashiq Hussain Faktoo, who is serving a life sentence, on Saturday asked Muslims in J&K to marry more than once and have “as many children as possible”.
The comment comes in the wake of VHP leader Sadhvi Prachi advising Hindus to have at least four children. “Muslims in J&K should marry more than once and have as many children as possible.
“Local Imams and clerics should make people aware about the importance of having more children and I request doctors not to perform unnecessary birth control surgeries in the absence of an excuse valid under shariah,” Faktoo, alais Qasim, said in a statement issued from the Central Jail here on Saturday.
Faktoo, who is married to separatist leader Asiya Andrabi, was sentenced to life by a court in 2003 on charges of his involvement in the murder of Kashmiri Pandit human rights activist Hriday Nath Wanchoo in 1992.
Justifying himself, Faktoo said, “Muslims in J&K are fighting for the right to self determination as promised to them by India. However, India has been working to turn Muslims into a minority in the state since 1947.”
“The settlement of West Pakistan refugees in J&K is a move towards this end. In such a situation it becomes that much more necessary for Muslims to have more children.”