Srinagar, April 27 Senior religious leader and chief cleric of Kashmir, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, on Monday criticised the Jammu and Kashmir administration for declaring a seminary unlawful, alleging "harassment and disempowerment of Kashmiri people". He also questioned the 'silence' of the elected government.
Mirwaiz Umar Farooq said on X today, “First we have multiple agencies chasing citizens under one pretext or another. Then properties of locals are confiscated. Students protesting alleged misconduct are booked under the Public Safety Act (PSA), sent to jails outside, ruining their lives and careers."
He made the allegations after a seminary was declared unlawful by the government.
“A sitting MP is denied bail to visit his critically ill father and now a leading educational institute with a rich legacy of serving the underprivileged and producing scholars, doctors, engineers, and professionals is declared unlawful under stringent UAPA! Can the LG administration tell people of Kashmir clearly how long they will continue this policy of harassment and disempowerment? he said. “And can the elected Govt tell us how long they will let this happen?”
Earlier in the day, the Jammu and Kashmir government declared Darul Uloom Jamia Siraj-ul-Uloom, a seminary in South Kashmir’s Shopian district, an “unlawful entity” under the UAPA over links with the banned Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI) and multiple irregularities. The Divisional Commissioner invoked powers conferred under Section 8(1) of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, to notify the seminary as an unlawful place.
Umar Farooq heads the banned Awami Action Committee (AAC) and the so-called moderate group of the separatist All-Parties Hurriyat Conference.
The AAC was formed in 1963 during the Holy Relic agitation in the Valley and was headed by Mirwaiz Maulana Mohammad Farooq.
Mirwaiz Umar was catapulted into the duties of the chief cleric after the daylight murder of his father, Mirwaiz Maulana Mohammad Farooq, by the terrorists on May 21, 1990.
The moderate group of the Hurriyat Conference was formed when the hardline separatist leader, Syed Ali Shah Geelani, caused a split in the separatist political conglomerate in 2014 to head his own breakaway group.
All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC), an alliance of several political, social and religious organisations, was initially formed on March 9, 1993, as a united political front and used to raise the cause of "Kashmiri independence". The alliance was propped by Pakistan as it contested the accession of J&K to India in 1947.
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