Srinagar: PDP president Mehbooba Mufti on Monday said her party will approach the Hazratbal police station for registering an FIR against Jammu and Kashmir Waqf Board chairperson Darakshan Andrabi for allegedly hurting sentiments of Muslims by placing a plaque with national emblem at the Hazratbal shrine.
In a post on X, the former chief minister claimed the PDP had approached Nigeen Police station for getting the FIR registered but it was denied.
“After being denied to file an FIR against Chairperson Waqf Board in Nigheen Police Station PDP will now approach Hazratbal Police Station. I urge @JmuKmrPolice to initiate an FIR immediately given the gravity of the offence – deliberately hurting the religious sentiments of Muslims thereby provoking them,” she said in her post on X.
A huge controversy erupted in Kashmir after a plaque with the Ashoka emblem was vandalised in the Hazratbal shrine on Friday as most political parties accused Andrabi of hurting religious sentiments by using the national emblem in the mosque and demanded registration of a criminal case and her immediate removal.
Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has said the Waqf Board should apologise for the “mistake,” asserting that the national emblem is meant for government functions, not religious institutions.
While parties like the NC, PDP and the CPI(M) said the use of Ashoka emblem in the mosque was “provocative” and “blasphemous”, the BJP slammed the defacement of the plaque, claiming the incident was an attempt to revive terrorism and separatism in the Valley.
The plaque was placed inside the Hazratbal shrine, which houses a relic of Prophet Muhammad (SAW), on Thursday, sparking outrage among devotees who maintained that placing any figure or symbol inside a mosque is against the Islamic principle of monotheism.
The plaque was subsequently vandalised and removed by unidentified individuals after Friday prayers, prompting police to register a case against unknown people.
“I have never seen an emblem being used in this way in any religious place. Mosques, shrines, temples and gurudwaras are not government institutions. These are religious institutions and government emblems are not used in religious institutions,” Abdullah said.
The controversy escalated when Andrabi, a BJP appointee, called for legal action, including booking the “hooligans” under the stringent Public Safety Act (PSA), for vandalising the emblem.
Abdullah condemned Andrabi’s response, saying the board “played with the sentiments of the people” and is now using threats.
“First, at least, they should have apologised for it. They should admit the mistake. It should not have happened,” the CM said.
PDP leader Iltija Mufti, in a post on X, claimed that Muslims were at the receiving end of the law even when the minority community are the victims.
“When innocent Muslims across India are lynched or their shops ransacked FIRs are filed against victims & not culprits. In Kashmir when religious sentiments of the majority i.e. Muslims are hurt they are instead booked under anti terror laws & that too on the insistence & threats of the culprits instigating them in the first place,” she charged.
Iltija Mufti further alleged that in India, law has become the “metaphor of madness & illogical absurdity”.
