Jammu and Kashmir’s official Grand Mufti on Saturday issued a fatwa against  Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, asking him to seek penance and clarify his reported statement about Mahatma Gandhi.

Mr Azad, at a function here on Gandhi Jayanti, had called the Gandhian way of life the best path and asked everybody to  follow it. In his decree, Mufti Azam Moulana Bashir-ud-Din said the best way of life for every Muslim was the one shown by the Prophet of Islam. He added that Azad had committed a crime through his statement .

“Anybody asking Muslims to follow a path other than the one shown by the Holy Prophet is violating the basic tenets of Islam,” the Mufti said.