NEW DELHI: Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah called on Thursday several demands seeking court-mandated surveys of Mosques and Shrines “a well-planned conspiracy”.
Abudullah’s statement comes on the heels of court interventions, involving surveys, in Rajasthan’s Ajmer Sharif Dargah and Sambhal’s Shahi Jama Masjid in Uttar Pradesh.
In a veiled attack on the ruling BJP, the NCP leader said “don’t appease” Muslims but also “don’t target” the community.
Abdullah said: “This is not the India that Jammu and Kashmir was a part of.”
“Now, as part of a well-planned conspiracy, attempts are being made to target our mosques. I have said this time and again. You say you will not appease Muslims, so don’t do it, we don’t want appeasement. But don’t target us. By attacking our mosques, shrines and the way we practice our religion, you are victimising us and this is not the India that Jammu and Kashmir was a part of. This is not the India our founding fathers had envisioned,” the J&K CM told news agency ANI.
On November 24, clashes between protesters opposing the court-ordered Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) survey of the Shahi Jama Masjid and the police left four people dead and several others, including security personnel and officials, injured.
On November 28, a management committee of Sambhal ‘s Jama Masjid moved to the Supreme Court against the mosque survey order given by a local court.
The next day, the Supreme Court directed a trial court to halt proceedings related to the survey of the Mughal-era mosque.
Similarly last week, in Rajasthan, a court in Ajmer issued notices to the Union ministry of minority affairs and ASI on a lawsuit filed by a Hindu organisation laying claim to the site of the dargah of Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti, citing “historical evidence” of the existence of a Shiva temple there before the white marble shrine to the 13th-century Sufi saint was built over his tomb.
Latest in the streak of demands came from Hindu Sena’s national president Vishnu Gupta, who wrote to the director general of ASI, requesting a survey of Delhi’s iconic Jama Masjid.
In the letter, Gupta alleged that Hindu deities’ idols were buried within the mosque. The Hindu Sena chief further alleged that the historic Jama mosque was constructed after the demolition of temples in Jodhpur and Udaipur. He claimed that the remains of these temples, including the idols of deities, were used in the stairs of the mosque to humiliate Hindus, supposedly by Aurangzeb.