An order directing police in the summer capital Srinagar to collect details of masjids has added to the speculations about some major decision in the offing, amid reports that the Centre might scarp Article 35A.
In his order Senior Superintendent of Police Srinagar,Haseeb Mughal asked five zonal SPs to provide details of masjids and theirmanagements falling without their respective jurisdictions immediately forsubmission to higher authorities.
The officials are supposed to submit details like name ofmasjid, “ideological affiliation”, location of masjid, name of moulvis, addressand name of chairman of intizamia (managing body). The order was issued barelya few days after Union Home Ministry decided to rush 10,000 additional paramilitaryforce personnel to Kashmir.
The order took social media by storm adding to the rumoursthat “something big was in the pipe-line.”
A source in the police said the “timing” of the order was”not right”. The SSP however said the order was a “basic policing activity” toupdate the in-house data of the masjids at the police stations level. Anothersenior police officer too tried to dispel the rumors, saying there was no needto panic. “It is to update the list of masjids in Srinagar. We already have thelist of Gurduwaras, temples and other religious place,” he said.