E-Paper
National Conference protests ban on priests from accepting offerings in Kashmir shrines
The National Conference (NC) on Saturday protested against the J&K Waqf Board’s decision to ban donation boxes and stop priests from collecting offerings from people in shrines, calling it interference in religion; the party demanded immediate roll back of the order
The National Conference (NC) on Saturday protested against the J&K Waqf Board’s decision to ban donation boxes and stop priests from collecting offerings from people in shrines, calling it interference in religion. The party demanded immediate roll back of the order.
NC activists took out a protest rally outside NC headquarters in Nawai Subah, Srinagar, shouting slogans against the government and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
“The government’s interference in religion is not acceptable. Long live Islam, down with BJP,” the protesters led by youth leader Salman Sagar shouted.
The Jammu and Kashmir Waqf Board earlier this week imposed a ban on priests and sajada nasheens (caretakers) from collecting offerings from people in major shrines and mosques managed by the board saying that it had received complaints against some people receiving donations ‘forcibly and through exploitative means’. Donation boxes in many prominent shrines have been removed while priests are being stopped from collecting offerings from people.
NC general secretary Ali Mohammad Sagar and chief spokesperson Tanvir Sadiq called it religious interference aimed to malign the centuries old system of preachers and caretakers in Kashmir shrines.
“It is a strange situation where respectable people of revered shrines are being called thieves. We don’t know through which prism the government is seeing this with, but it seems like an attempt to malign Muslims, particularly sajad nasheens(caretakers of shrines), scholars and preachers,” said Sagar in a press conference.
