Attacks on Kashmiris must be stopped: Mirwaiz Umar Farooq

Moderate separatist voice and the valleys chief cleric Mirwaiz Umar Farooq on Friday expressed concern over the attacks on Kashmiris and called upon the authorities to ensure their safety outside the valley. It is a very disconcerting matter and all members of Mutahida Majlis-e-Ulema MMU, expressing their serious concern, have asked the authorities to stop it, he said.

Moderate separatist voice and the valley's chief cleric Mirwaiz Umar Farooq on Friday expressed concern over the attacks on Kashmiris and called upon the authorities to ensure their safety outside the valley. Addressing the Friday congregation at Jamia Masjid here, the mirwaiz expressed deep anguish at the ''brutal assault using iron rods on 18-year-old Kashmiri shawl vendor Tabish and his brother Danish in Uttarakhand's Vikas Nagar area, causing grievous injuries to them.'' He said the incident reflected the ''disturbing pattern of communal profiling and hostility faced by ordinary Kashmiris outside Jammu and Kashmir.'' ''Similar incidents of harassment and attacks on Kashmiri traders, labourers and students have recently been reported from Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, and other parts of the country,'' he said. The separatist leader said thousands of Kashmiris travel to different states during the winter months to earn an honest livelihood and such ''targeting of vulnerable people'' must stop immediately. The mirwaiz described the attacks as ''a very disconcerting matter'', as well as the seeking of information about mosques, their management committees, imams, and those associated with places of worship. ''It is a very disconcerting matter and all members of Mutahida Majlis-e-Ulema (MMU), expressing their serious concern, have asked the authorities to stop it,'' he said. He said that the MMU -- an amalgam of several religious bodies in J-K -- will soon convene a meeting of its constituent members and senior religious leadership to deliberate on the matter and a collective course of action.

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