Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) President Mehbooba Mufti has called for strict legal action against the Jammu and Kashmir Waqf Board for installing a blasphemous plaque bearing the Ashoka emblem inside the revered Hazratbal shrine.
Addressing a press conference in Srinagar, the former chief minister said the installation of the emblem was a deliberate act that outraged the religious sentiments of Muslims, making it a fit case under Section 295-A. “Instead of punishing those who protested against the emblem out of religious sentiment, the government should book the Waqf Board chairperson and members who permitted this blasphemous act. Hazratbal is a religious place, not a venue for coronation or political symbolism,” she stressed.
Mehbooba Mufti criticised Waqf Board Chairperson Darakhshan Andrabi for demanding the draconian Public Safety Act (PSA) against local residents accused of vandalising the emblem. “Asking the Indian Home Minister to slap PSA on locals is unacceptable. The real question is: who authorised the installation of an emblem in a shrine where Islam prohibits idol worship?” she questioned.
She further said that while successive governments had worked for the development of Hazratbal, none had compromised its sanctity by indulging in such “unislamic practices.” “Unfortunately the sanctity of Hazratbal was sacrificed in this manner,” the PDP president remarked.
