Around 100 People Offer Prayers At Srinagar’s Jamia Masjid For First Time Since Abrogation Of Article 370 In Jammu And Kashmir firstpost.com

A call to afternoon prayer rang out from the central mosque in disputed Kashmir’s largest city for the first time in more than four months on Wednesday, ending a virtual ban on religious practice in the Muslim-majority region’s biggest mosque.The Jamia Masjid in Srinagar was shut on 5 August as part of India’s security lockdown after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist-led government stripped Kashmir of its semi-autonomous status.

About 100 worshipers gathered in the mosque to offer noon prayers. “We were waiting for conditions to improve and the mosque gates to be opened by the police,” said Mufti Ghulam Rasool, who leads daily prayers at the mosque.

The centuries-old Jamia Masjid, made of brick and wood, is one of the oldest mosques in this city of 1.2 million, 96 percent of whom are Muslim, and often draws thousands to prayer.

That it was a target for authorities is neither surprising nor new. Friday sermons at the mosque mainly revolve around the decades-old Kashmir conflict, in which rebels have demanded an independent Kashmir or a merger with Pakistan, which administers half of the territory. In surrounding neighborhoods, stone-throwing protesters often clash with government forces as part of an ongoing anti-India rebellion.

“Jamia Masjid is symbol of our faith,” said Bashir Ahmed, a local trader. “The assault on us is not just physical, they’re also desecrating our sacred symbols of our faith.”