Ashoka Emblem on foundation stone at Jammu & Kashmir's Hazratbal shrine defaced

Srinagar: A controversy broke out at the revered Hazratbal shrine in Srinagar on Friday after devotees staged protests against the Jammu and Kashmir Waqf Board for inscribing the Ashoka Emblem on the foundation stone of a new structure within the shrine premises.

Several visitors accused Waqf Board chairperson and senior BJP leader Darakhshan Andrabi, along with clerics under her oversight, of showing insensitivity towards the religious sentiments of Muslims. Devotees described the move as a blatant violation of Islamic traditions and called for immediate accountability from the authorities.

As tempers ran high, the Ashoka Emblem carved on the foundation board was later defaced by protestors.

Reacting sharply, Andrabi denounced the act, terming it a “terrorist attack” and demanded stern action against those involved. “Those who carried out this act are nothing less than terrorists. I appeal to Prime Minister Narendra Modi ji, Home Minister Amit Shah ji and law enforcement agencies to arrest them without delay,” she told reporters.

The Waqf chairperson alleged that the incident was not spontaneous but deliberately engineered. “The chaos was orchestrated by political workers and their supporters. I had already warned that such trouble could be created. FIRs will be filed against everyone responsible, including the MLA whose tweet added fuel to the fire,” Andrabi said.

Earlier, National Conference MLA Tanvir Sadiq, a close aide of Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, had strongly opposed the inscription of the Ashoka Emblem. In a post on X, Sadiq said that while he was not a religious scholar, Islam strictly forbids idol worship, which he termed the gravest of sins.

“The foundation of our faith is Tawheed,” he wrote, arguing that the presence of the Ashoka Emblem—described as a sculpted figure—within the Dargah contradicts this core Islamic belief. “Sacred spaces must reflect only the purity of Tawheed, nothing else,” he added.