Hijab row: Mehbooba Mufti slams BJP, Farooq Abdullah blames 'radical elements'

Karnataka hijab row: A three-judge bench of the Karnataka high court will, on Monday, resume its hearing on pleas challenging the state government's ‘ban’ on hijab.

Former Jammu and Kashmir chief ministers Mehbooba Mufti and Farooq Abdullah on Sunday lashed out at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over the ongoing controversy in BJP-ruled Karnataka, which has seen protests against Muslim students wearing hijab not being allowed to enter educational institutes, and counter-protests by Hindu students against hijab on campuses.

Muslim women protest against the hijab ban in Karnataka educational institutes, in Kolkata on Friday, February 11, 2022. (PTI)

Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chief Mufti, a former ally-turned-vocal critic of the BJP, which is also in power at the Centre, claimed that the party won't stop at hijab.

“They will come for other symbols of Muslims and erase all. For Indian Muslims, it is not enough to be an Indian, they have to be BJP as well,” she said.

Meanwhile, National Conference (NC) president Farooq Abdullah said everyone is free to wear to eat as they wish and practice their religious beliefs. “There are some radical elements who are attacking a religion in an attempt to win polls by dividing people on communal lines,” Abdullah said.

The politicians' remarks come a day before a three-judge bench of the Karnataka high court, headed by chief justice Ritu Raj Awasthi, will resume hearing petitions challenging the Karnataka government's ‘ban’ on wearing the Islamic headscarves on campuses.

On Friday, the Supreme Court refused to give urgent hearing to pleas against the high court's interim order banning students from coming to campuses in religious attires.