Srinagar, July 21, 2021 (PPI-OT):In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, people could not offer Eid prayers at big mosques, today, on Eid-ul-Azha, one of the biggest Muslim festivals, due to continued military siege and restrictions imposed by the Indian authorities particularly after August 5, 2019.
According to Kashmir Media Service, the authorities restricted people from offering prayers in historical Jamia Masjid, Dargah Hazratbal, Eidgahs and other big mosques by erecting barricades. All mosques and the shrines including Kashmir’s largest Jamia Masjid Srinagar were closed. Kashmiri Muslims were also unable to sacrifice bovines freely. Eid prayers were allowed only in small local mosques of the territory.
Despite Eid celebrations all across the Muslim world, Indian occupational troops continued cordon and search operations in every nook and corner of Jammu and Kashmir including Srinagar, today. The troops barged into the houses and harassed inmates.
Meanwhile, in addition to issuance of IIOJK domiciles to hundreds of thousands of non-Kashmiris after August 5, 2019, now the Modi regime has started granting the permanent resident certificates to non-local spouses of Kashmiri women, who were previously ineligible to get citizenship of the territory under the law. The move is seen, by experts on Kashmir, as an attempt to remove the remaining restrictions on outsiders to get domicile of the territory. All this, they added, is meant to change the demography of Jammu and Kashmir and advance the Hindutva agenda in the territory.
The Delhi-based Concerned Citizens Group, which recently visited Kashmir, has said that political parties in the Valley do not trust the ongoing delimitation process and want full statehood even as the common people have lost all faith in New Delhi. The group has five members that include former External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha; Sushobha Barve, Wajahat Habibullah, Air Vice Marshal (Retd.) Kapil Kak and journalist Bharat Bhushan. The group warned that the tendency in Kashmiri youth towards joining armed struggle had become more intense – similar to what it was in the 1990s.
For more information, contact:
Kashmir Media Service
Phone: +92-51-4435548, +92-51-4435549
Fax: +92-51-4861736
Email: info@kmsnews.org
Website: www.kmsnews.org