Kashmir cleric removed from post over obscene video clip
Prominent cleric and separatist leader Qazi Yasir Ahmed has been removed as mirwaiz ( chief cleric) of south Kashmir as well as the head of a religious organisation after a video showing him masturbating during a video phone call with an unnamed female follower went viral on social media.
Initially, his family had rejected the video as fake and alleged that it has been fabricated to defame the young cleric- cumpolitician and tarnish the image of the institutions he is heading. But now Idar- e- Tehqeqaat Islami or Islamic Research Institute Kashmir has removed Ahmed as the mirwaiz of south Kashmir. Incidentally, the institute is headed by his maternal grandfather Alhaj Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah.
The video had led to creation of memes by hundreds of the users of various social media platforms particularly Facebook, causing huge embarrassment to entire Qazi family which is otherwise held in high esteem in Kashmir particularly in southern parts of the Valley.
A resident of Anantnag, 34- year- old Ahmed is the son of Qazi Nissar Ahmed bin Muhammad, the cleric and politician and then chief of UmmateIslami, a social- religious organization who was assassinated by unidentified gunmen at Dialgam on the peripheries of Anantnag town on June 19, 1994. Following SeniorAhmed’s murder, his elder son took over both as mirwaiz of south Kashmir as well as head of Ummat- e- Islami. Father of two children, Qazi Yasir was also chairman of Idar- e- Tehgeqaat Islamic and chief spokesman of Mutahida Ulema- e- Ahle Sunnah, an amalgam of 47 religious organizations of Jammu and Kashmir.
Ahmed’s grandfather Sheikh Abdullah said that if proved guilty he will also be “expelled” from the family. “If at all these allegations are proved right, then his family has no association with him,” he says in a video message.
The family had earlier at a hurriedly called press conference alleged that Ahmed’s image was being tarnished through “fake propaganda.”