The police have begun the process of a security audit of mosques, madrassas, and those involved in managing these religious institutions after busting the ‘white-collar’ terror module involving doctors.
File Photo: IANS
The profiling of mosques by security agencies in Kashmir has triggered a political row, with the ruling National Conference (NC) and Kashmir’s chief cleric questioning why religious institutions of Muslims alone were being audited in Jammu and Kashmir.
The police have begun the process of a security audit of mosques, madrassas, and those involved in managing these religious institutions after busting the ‘white-collar’ terror module involving doctors.
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NC leader Bashir Ahmad took exception to the move and said that a similar exercise should be conducted against the RSS.
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Mirwaiz Umar Farooq-led Mutahida Majlis-e-Ulema (MMU), the largest conglomerate of Islamic religious organisations in Jammu and Kashmir, has expressed deep concern over the ongoing police exercise in the Valley. The MMU has raised serious questions about the collection of “extensive and intrusive information” regarding mosques, their management committees, imams, khatibs, and individuals associated with places of worship, and even their family members.
In a statement, the MMU said that detailed multi-page forms are being distributed by the police, seeking highly “personal and sensitive information”, including private identification details, family particulars, financial information, phone details, digital and social-media profiles, passport details, travel history, and even phone IMEI numbers of all those connected with the management of mosques. The forms also ask for the mosque’s ideological sect — Barelvi, Hanafi, Deobandi, or Ahle-Hadith. “Such an unprecedented and invasive data-collection exercise has caused widespread anxiety among religious institutions, imams, khatibs, and the public in general,” the MMU said.
The MMU categorically states that this exercise is in complete violation of fundamental rights and the right to privacy and personal information guaranteed under the Constitution. Mosques are sacred institutions meant for worship, guidance, and community service, and their internal religious affairs cannot be subjected to arbitrary surveillance and intrusive scrutiny.
The MMU stated, “This exercise is being conducted specifically on the Muslim community of Jammu and Kashmir, which again raises suspicions about its motives.”
“The MMU strongly feels that the elected government must immediately intervene in this matter. Such an exercise must be stopped forthwith, as it undermines trust, creates fear among religious functionaries, and sends a disturbing message to the Muslim community of the state. Measures that single out mosques and religious personnel in this manner are unjustified, counterproductive, and harmful to social harmony,” the MMU stated.
The MMU urged the LG authorities to immediately withdraw this exercise to respect the autonomy of religious institutions and uphold the constitutional guarantees of religious freedom, privacy, and the dignity of citizens.
A former mayor of Srinagar, Junaid Azim Mattu, also criticised the move and wrote on X, “An absolutely condemnable and atrocious move that reeks of blatant misuse of authority at the cost of the fundamental rights of citizens. There should be no place for ethnic, religious, or racial profiling in India. It is an assault on the idea of India. We cannot suspend the Constitution to fight terror.”
The focus of the enumeration drive is on the finances of mosques and madrassas, including the source of funds used for construction and meeting the day-to-day expenses, they said.
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