Indian Army soldiers stormed a mosque in Pulwama in the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJ&K) in a flagrant violation of both fundamental rights and sanctity of religious places.
The Indian troops vandalised the mosque and then ordered the prayer caller and the worshippers to chant “Jai Shri Ram” slogans on loudspeakers in the mosque.
The incident took place in the Zadoora neighbourhood of the Pulwama district and triggered a mass outrage, with civil society activists and political leaders terming it a violation of religious freedom and an assault on the sanctity of religious places of Muslims.
The locals of Zadoora told the media that the incident took place in the intervening night of Friday, June 23, and Saturday, June 24, at around 1:30am when a group of soldiers from the Indian Army’s 50 Rashtriya Rifles arrived in the village. The soldiers were accompanied by an unidentified officer.
“While the officer was sitting on the bonnet of one of the vehicles, the soldiers asked me to come out. I thought that they were looking for some suspects in the village,” said Mohammad Altaf Butt, who lives in Zadoora.
Butt, who is the chairman of Zadoora Civil Society, said that the soldiers told him that a new team has been posted in the area and they were carrying out a mock drill in the village to teach the recruits how counterinsurgency operations were undertaken.
“I told them that the operation could have been carried out during the day also and it was wrong to disturb villagers in the middle of the night,” Butt said, adding that the villagers were kept awake till the break of dawn.
Locals said that during the ‘operation’, soldiers detained at least 10 teenagers of the village, five of whom were beaten up, including Butt’s son, Javed Ahmad. “They used a belt and beat him repeatedly. His back suffered bruises,” Butt said, showing a photograph of his son, purportedly taken after the assault.
At the crack of dawn, when a local muazzin went inside the mosque to give the call for prayers (azaan), Butt said, the Army soldiers followed him. “In the middle of the azaan, the soldiers forced him to chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’ slogans,” said Butt.
“The soldiers forced the detained youngsters to chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’ slogans in chorus behind him also,” Butt said.
Local said the Army also vandalised Jamia Masjid Zadoora, the largest mosque in this south Kashmir village, where ‘Jai Shri Ram’ slogans were also chanted over loudspeaker.
As the news of the assault spread on Saturday morning, agitated villagers came out of their homes and started shouting slogans against the Army.
The incident in Zadoora took place at a time when Indian Home Minister Amit Shah was visiting occupied Jammu and Kashmir to review the security situation in the run up to the Amarnath Yatra which is set to begin next month with more than five lakh pilgrims expected to undertake the annual pilgrimage this year.
Shocked to hear about army troops from 50 RR storming into a mosque at Pulwama & forcing muslims inside to chant ‘Jai Shree Ram’. Such a move when @AmitShah is here & that too ahead of yatra is simply an act of provocation. Request @RgGhai to immediately set up a probe.
— Mehbooba Mufti (@MehboobaMufti) June 24, 2023
A section of the local media which reported the incident said that the Indian Army’s Srinagar-based spokesperson and Kashmir Valley’s police chief Vijay Kumar failed to respond when asked for comments. A senior police officer, however, said that an inquiry has been ordered to ascertain facts.
National Conference leader Omar Abdullah and People’s Democratic Party President Mehbooba Mufti demanded a probe into the gruesome incident.
Omar tweeted, “Reports of security force personnel entering a mosque in Zadoora in Pulwama are deeply distressing.”
Reports of security force personnel entering a mosque in Zadoora in Pulwama are deeply distressing. It’s bad enough they entered but then forcing people to chant slogans like “Jai Shree Ram” as reported by the locals there, is unacceptable. I hope @rajnathsingh ji will issue… pic.twitter.com/POyuN3srA3
— Omar Abdullah (@OmarAbdullah) June 25, 2023
