J&K leader asks Muslims to practice polygamy

A hardline separatist leader in Kashmir on Wednesday urged Muslims to marry more than once and have as many children as possible, much as Bharatiya Janata Party parliamentarian Sakshi Maharaj has urged Hindus.

In an emailed statement to the media, Muhammad Qasim, the incarcerated chief of the “Muslim Deeni Mahaz”, urged imams—religious clerics—to makes people aware of the “importance of having more children”. Qasim, husband of the firebrand leader of separatist women's group Dukhtaran-e-Millat (Daughters of the Nation), Asiya Andrabi, is serving a life term for killing human rights activists H N Wanchoo in 1992.

Referring to the recent remarks of Sakshi Maharaj, Qasim said: “It is surprising that despite India having an 80 per cent Hindu population, Hindu leaders are asking women to bear at least five children, while Muslims in Jammu and Kashmir, being just 68 per cent of the population, are being turned into a minority, being asked to bear just one or two children.

“We appeal well-to-do Muslims to marry more than once and have as many children as possible. The Quranic tenet of justice between wives is only in providing equal provision and not inclination of the heart,” he said.