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‘As true as Lt Guv’s claim’: Owaisi’s comeback to J&K cops on Jama Masjid rebuttal
The war of words between Kashmir Police and Asaduddin Owaisi started after he took a jibe at lieutenant governor Manoj Sinha after he inaugurated two cinema halls in Kashmir’s Pulwama and Shopian districts
SRINAGAR: The Jammu and Kashmir Police on Tuesday night rejected claims of Lok Sabha MP Asaduddin Owaisi that Jamia Masjid in Srinagar was being shut every Friday, saying barring three occasions the mosque has remained open post-Covid. Owaisi hit back with a news report from last year that quoted the mosque’s managing body saying that the mosque was shut for 45 Fridays in 2021.
The war of words started when Owaisi took a jibe at Jammu and Kashmir lieutenant governor Manoj Sinha after he inaugurated two cinema halls in Kashmir’s Pulwama and Shopian districts.
“Sir @manojsinha_ you have opened Cinema Halls in Shopian & Pulwama but why is Srinagar Jamia Masjid shut on every Friday at least don’t shut it during the afternoon matinee show,” Owaisi, who is the president of Hyderabad-headquartered All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen(AIMIM), said in a tweet.
The Srinagar Police responded, insisting that the mosque has been open post-Covid barring three Fridays.
“Jamia is fully opened, only on 3 occasions post-covid, it was temporarily shut for Friday noon prayers owing to inputs of terror attack and law & order situation. This was after Jamia authorities failed to take responsibility for happenings inside. Staying far is no excuse for ignorance,” it said.
In response, the Hyderabad MP said the “fact” put forth by police was as true as Sinha’s claim that Jamia Masjid chief cleric Mirwaiz Umar Farooq was not under house arrest.
“This ‘fact’ is just as true as Mr @manojsinha_ saying Mirwaiz Umar Farooq ‘na nazar-band hai na band hai. Wo khud teh karein ki wo karna kya chahte hai’ (he is neither arrested nor is he under house arrest. He should decide what he wants),” Owaisi said, a reference to lt governor Manoj Sinha’s interview with BBC Hindi in August in which he claimed that the Hurriyat Conference chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq was not under arrest saying “We have kept police around him for his safety”.
The claim was promptly rejected by Hurriyat, which also underlined that Mirwaiz Umar Farooq was even stopped from going to Jamia Masjid on Fridays to deliver religious sermons, an old tradition of the family in Jammu and Kashmir.
The Mirwaiz attempted to leave his house on August 26 in the presence of news channels to make his point. He wasn’t allowed.
