Maintain sectarian harmony, says amalgam of Muslim bodies in J&K on shrine row

Srinagar, Jul 20 (PTI) An amalgam of several religious organisations in Jammu and Kashmir on Saturday called for maintaining peace and sectarian harmony following a controversy over a mourning ritual during Muharram by some members of the Shia community inside a shrine of a Sufi saint here.

The Muttahida Majlis-e-Ulama (MMU) headed by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, who is also the chairman of the Hurriyat Conference, emphasised that the people of J-K should not allow any group to disrupt the “legacy of J-K’s unique identity and composition based on unity, sectarian harmony and mutual solidarity”.

The controversy erupted after some members of the Shia community held a mourning ritual inside the Sunni shrine of Khanqah-e-Moula, built in memory of renowned Sufi saint Mir Syed Ali Hamdani, in the downtown area of the city here.

Jammu and Kashmir Waqf Board chairperson Darakhshan Andrabi on Friday said action has been initiated against those who tried to vitiate peace.

“The people of Kashmir cannot afford such divisions, and need to show restraint and patience,” the MMU said in a statement.

The amalgam said it seems that the incident was a “planned and mischievous attempt to hurt the sentiments of the larger sect by some elements at work”, which needs to be investigated.

“The MMU has decided the formation of a committee consisting of responsible members from both sects to investigate and identify the elements involved in this incident,” it said.

The committee will submit its report in some time after which MMU will follow up on this matter, it added.

The organisation also urged scholars and preachers of both the sects to stop making comments and speeches on all platforms including on social media that hurt each other’s sentiments.

Meanwhile, the Mirwaiz expressed concern over the arrests of the former officer bearers of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court Bar Association.

Three senior functionaries of the Bar Association have been arrested in the past few weeks.

While former Bar president Nazir Ahmad Ronga was arrested last week and booked under the PSA, another former president of the lawyers’ body Mian Abdul Qayoom was arrested last month in connection with the murder of Advocate Babar Qadri by terrorists in 2020.

Senior advocate and former general secretary of the Bar Association Mohammad Ashraf Bhat was arrested from his residence here and booked under the Public Safety Act on Thursday.