Srinagar: In Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir, in a continued assault on religious freedom, the New Delhi-imposed administration barred Kashmiri Muslims from offering the Eid-ul-Adha prayers at the historic Jamia Masjid and Eidgah in Srinagar.

According to Radio Pakistan, the ban was enforced by the Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha-led administration on the instructions of Indian Home Minister Amit Shah. This continues a repressive pattern, as Eid prayers have been barred at Jamia Masjid and Eidgah since 2019, the year the Modi government revoked the special status of IIOJK.

This marks the seventh consecutive year that congregational Eid prayers at these historic sites in Srinagar have been prohibited. Senior APHC leader, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, was also placed under house arrest once again, who expressed his anguish over the decision. Mirwaiz stated that in this Muslim-majority region, Muslims are being denied their fundamental right to pray even on their most important religious day.

Meanwhile, AP
HC spokesperson Advocate Abdul Rashid Minhas, in a statement in Srinagar, strongly condemned the ban, calling it yet another violation of basic human rights by a regime that falsely claims to be the world’s largest democracy. He said India has not only stripped Kashmiris of their political freedoms but also trampled upon their religious liberties.

Abdul Rashid Minhas stated that Kashmiris are being subjected to collective punishment simply for demanding their right to self-determination. The APHC urged the international community to take urgent notice of the Modi regime’s intensifying crackdown in IIOJK and play its role in resolving the Kashmir dispute.