Puja, Kirtan session in Civil Secretariat Srinagar, Mosque continuously locked

Srinagar, May 07 (KNB): As the bi-annual offices open in Jammu and Kashmir’s summer capital, unusual and surprising scenes were witnessed in Srinagar Civil Secretariat complex following Pujaris and Hindu religious priests were called in to hold a Puja session inside the cabin of a minister.
Eyewitnesses told Kashmir News Bureau (KNB), that excited with the protocol of ministry, the newly appointed Jammu and Kashmir Health and Medical Education Minister and Dr Divendar Kumar Manyal on the eve of opening of bi-annual Darbar Move offices in Srinagar held a 2-hours-long Puja session inside his secretariat office chamber while on other hand the only mosque in the complex continuously remain locked since two decades for unknown reasons.



Sources in Health Ministry told Kashmir News Bureau (KNB) that the Hindu right wing party BJP leader and Minister for Health Dr Divendar Kumar Manyal on his first day in Srinagar office halted other senior officials ‘forcefully’ while performing Hindu religious ritual amid sloganeering “Om Jai Jagdish Harish” and “Bharat Mata ki Jai”, adding, the cabin reverberated with cries of hymns and recitation of shlokas.
Divendar Kumar Manyal took oath as Jammu and Kashmir Minister last week.
A senior employee at Civil Secretariat pleading anonymity told KNB that the sloganeering coming inside the minister’s cabin was unusual and surprising, adding, “I’m not sure whether it is unlawful to hold such practices in office or permissible, but it was strange that despite repeated requests the locks of mosque inside the complex are not opened.”
Pertinent to mention here, Muslim employees of the Civil Secretariat have to face inconvenience as the mosque in the complex remains shut for the past two decades for unknown reasons.(KNB)