Srinagar- Authorities here have allowed Hurriyat Conference chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq to travel to Delhi for a “personal” visit.
“Mirwaz-e-Kashmir Mohammad Umar Farooq was allowed by the state authorities to travel to New Delhi yesterday (Monday). Mirwaiz had conveyed the personal nature of his visit after which the authorities allowed him,” Anjuman Auqaf Jamia Masjid, the management body of the 14th-century mosque in Srinagar, said in a statement on Tuesday.
It claimed that despite his release from house detention in September last year, the Hurriyat chairman has been repeatedly detained at his residence at Nigeen, especially on Fridays.
He has not been allowed to visit the Jamia Masjid, where he delivers the Friday sermon, since the Israel-Hamas conflict broke out on October 7 last year, the mosque management body said.
“The Mirwaiz will be back (in Kashmir) in a couple of weeks,” the statement added.
“I am on a personal visit to Delhi with my family including my mother,” Mirwaiz informed the media .
Mirwaiz, who is also the Valley’s chief cleric, was put under house arrest by the central government on August 4, 2019, a day before it abrogated Jammu and Kashmir’s special status. When he was released from house arrest in September last year, Mirwaiz was allowed to deliver the Friday sermon from the historic mosque for the first time since 2019.
However, a few weeks after his release, the government not only barred him from delivering Friday sermons again but also shut the grand mosque for Friday prayers fearing public rallies in support of Palestine.
“It is pertinent to mention here that despite his release from house detention in September 2023, he is repeatedly detained at his house especially on Fridays,” the Anjuman said in its statement. It said that Mirwaiz would return to the Valley in a “couple of weeks”.
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