SRINAGAR: Indian soldiers have forced Muslim worshippers in a mosque in the valley’s Pulwama area to chant Hindu slogans.
“Shocked to hear about army troops from 50 RR (Rashtriya Rifles) storming into a mosque at Pulwama and forcing Muslims inside to chant ‘Jai Shree Ram’.
“Such a move when [Home Minister] Amit Shah is here and that too ahead of yatra (a Hindu pilgrimage) is simply an act of provocation,” said former Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti.
She requested Indian Lieutenant General Rajiv Ghai, who recently took command of India’s Chinar Corps in the area, to “immediately set up a probe” in to the reported incident.
Similarly former CM Omar Abdullah termed the reports “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,” he said, referring to a Hindu religious slogan.
He expressed hope that Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh would issue instructions for the reports to be investigated in a “timely and transparent manner”.
According to Indian news websites, the residents of Zadoora, a village in occupied Kashmir’s Pulwama area, said the alleged incident took place on June 24 around 1:30am when soldiers of Rashtriya Rifles, a counter-insurgency force, arrived at the village, reportedly along with an unidentified officer.
“While the officer was sitting on the bonnet of one of the vehicles, the soldiers asked me to come out,” Mohammad Altaf Bhat, a Zadoora local and chairman of the Zadoora Civil Society group.
“I thought that they were looking for some suspects in the village,” he said, adding that the soldiers told him that a new team was being posted in the area and it was conducting a mock drill in the village to teach recruits how to carry out counter-insurgency operations.
“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,” the report quoted Bhat as saying, who said the villagers were kept awake till dawn.
Then around dawn, Indian army soldiers followed the muezzin. “In the middle of the azaan (call to prayer), the soldiers forced him to chant ‘Jai Shree Ram’ slogans,” he alleged.
According to the report, area residents alleged that Indian army soldiers detained at least 10 villagers during their exercise and five of them were beaten up, including Bhat’s son.
“They (soldiers) forced the detained youngsters to chant ‘Jai Shree Ram’ slogans in chorus behind him also,” Bhat claimed.
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