Mirwaiz says barred from offering Friday prayers at Srinagar’s Jama Masjid again

Placed under house arrest for the third straight week, the Hurriyat chairman called the curbs an “assault on basic rights” and accused authorities of acting with “no accountability.”

Srinagar: Hurriyat Conference chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq on Friday said that he has been disallowed again from offering congregational prayers at the Jamia Masjid here.

"Just informed by the police that today again, for the third consecutive Friday, I have been placed under house arrest and will not be allowed to go to Jama Masjid," Mirwaiz said in a post on X.

The Mirwaiz, who is also the chief cleric of Kashmir and delivers the Friday sermon at the grand mosque, described the repeated house detention as an assault on basic rights.

"What law, if laws govern us, sanctions such an assault on basic rights and turns worship into a crime? Week after week, on Fridays or any day they decide, at their whim and will, the authorities lock me inside my home, curb my freedom, and prevent me from fulfilling my religious duties, with no accountability for this authoritarian behaviour," he added.

The Hurriyat chairman said all those "whose duty it is to hold the authorities to account either dare not or bother not to question them".

"Strongly condemn these repeated curbs and the authorities contempt for human rights and people's sentiment," he said.