Addressing the Friday congregation at Srinagar’s Jamia Masjid, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, Kashmir’s chief cleric, termed the blast near Red Fort in Delhi a tragedy and said that “no religion can permit it”.
He also said that “such tragedies are exploited even before facts are established”, and that this “feeds into a narrative eager to immediately associate it with a particular religion or community, and criminalise them.”
He further said that it created a fear for the safety of several students studying across India and “anxiety among people here”.
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Mirwaiz said that he, alongside all political and religious organisations that he is a part of, has always condemned acts of violence and terror. “The people of Kashmir are the first to empathise with victims when such incidents occur, as they understand the pain caused by such incidents from their own experience of decades. What happened in Delhi — no cause, however right — can justify it. No religion can permit it.
He said that according to him, dialogue is the best way to resolve issues and build bridges.
“I have repeatedly said that the pulpit of Jamia Masjid places upon me the responsibility of speaking for the people. And the people of Kashmir are distressed. While the larger issue remains unaddressed, even the autonomy constitutionally given by the Government of India to the people of J&K was snatched in August 2019 and people’s land and job rights were taken from them,” he said.
Mirwaiz appealed to authorities to “seriously relook” their approach of dealing with the people of Jammu and Kashmir “only through the prism of security and law and order.”
