Thirteen youths were arrested on Saturday in a crackdown a day after azaadi slogans were raised inside the Jamia Masjid in Srinagar, while two high school students were suspended for “religious sloganeering” in Jammu’s Bhaderwah. Meanwhile, an Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) ‘commander’ was killed in an anti-militancy operation in south Kashmir.
Pro-Islam and pro-azaadi (freedom) slogans were raised at the Jamia Masjid on Friday after the noon prayers. It was for the first time this year that Friday prayers at the 600-year-old mosque were allowed during the holy month of Ramzan. Earlier, the authorities had denied permission for over 30 weeks for prayers at the historic mosque.
The mosque has mostly remained closed on government orders since the Centre ended J&K’s special constitutional position in 2019. The chief priest of the mosque, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, also Hurriyat chairman, remains under house arrest since August 2019.
