Republic Day: No Friday prayers allowed in Kashmir’s Grand Mosque

Bilal Bashir Bhat
Srinagar, Jan 26 (KNB): In view of the Republic Day celebrations the authorities on Friday imposed strict restriction in parts of the Srinagar city including at Downtown which houses the Kashmir’s grand mosque thus disallowing the devotees to offer Friday congregational prayers in mosque.
Besides imposing curfew-like restrictions in parts of the Srinagar city, the authorities also placed Hurriyat (M) Chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq who delivers sermon at grand mosque before Friday prayers under house confinement.
Witnesses said that heavy deployment of government forces including police and CRPF personnel were stationed in and around the Masjid to disallow people from offering prayers there.



Condemning the authorities move to disallow prayers at Grand Moque, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq tweets, “Once again no prayers allowed in barricaded and garrisoned downtown including at the #JamaMasjid ,while all channels of communication remain blocked and leadership put under forced detention by the republican state.”
The Hurriyat (M) spokesman in a statement to KNB, termed the restrictions aimed to stop people from holding protests against the ‘state-sponsored terror’ unleashed on the people of Kashmir in view of the Republic Day.
In 2017, due to the restrictions on different occasions some 20 weeks there were no Friday prayers at Grand Mosque.
Meanwhile, all Republic Day programmes in Kashmir, including the main event in Srinagar, Friday passed off peacefully amid tight security in view of intelligence reports suggesting that militants might target the functions. (KNB)