NEW DELHI, May 31: Jammu and Kashmir's leading Muslim clerics met in Srinagar on Thursday to condemn the Indian army's ongoing campaign for repairing damaged mosques and shrines in the disputed state.
An emergency meeting of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Ulema was chaired by Hurriyat leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, who appealed to President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, as the commander in chief of the Indian armed forces, and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to stop the army's Operation Sadbhav (Goodwill) immediately.
The army says it spent about Rs5.20 million in the past three years to renovate mosques and Muslim shrines across Kashmir as part of its campaign to win the "hearts and minds" of the people in the Muslim-majority state.
Some 350 clerics representing Kashmir's diverse sects of Muslims, including Sunnis and Shias also voiced their anger at the proposed introduction of sex education in the state's schools for teenaged students.
Under a programme named "Sadbhavna", or goodwill, the Indian army has also built schools and bus stations in Kashmir.
"We find it not only odd but also hypocritical that the men of the armed forces who are responsible for years of relentless assault on our culture and who have destroyed and abused our places of worship are seeking to mask their culpability with this false gesture of goodwill," Mirwaiz told Dawn from Srinagar.
A statement issued by the clerics after their meeting argued that the onus of repairing mosques or other Muslim shrines lay with the Muslim people of Kashmir and therefore, even on strictly religious grounds, the army should desist from continuing its campaign.
The clerics have called for peaceful state-wide protests to stresstheir opposition to what they said was the army's attempt to interfere in the religious affairs of the state's Muslims.
The clerics said security forces had caused the "maximum injury" to Kashmir's Muslims in the last two decades, and called their attempts to repair and renovate Islamic holy sites a conspiracy that people should resist.
An Indian army spokesman denied the charge and said the renovation of mosques and shrines was done only after a request from the people of Kashmir.
