Police seek info on J&K mosques, spark row

SRINAGAR:AN order by the Jammu & Kashmir police seeking details on mosques and their management committees, that went viral on social media on Monday was enough to set tongues wagging about the possibility of the Centre revoking Article 35A soon.

The order was issued on July 28 by Senior Superintendent of Police, Srinagar, Haseeb Mughal who described it as “routine police activity.”

The state is currently under President’s rule and, over the past few days, every government order is being seen as a precursor to revoking Article 35A of the Constitution that gives special privileges to the state’s domiciled residents. For instance, only they can own property in the state. On July 26, it was an order about the deployment of 100 companies of additional security forces and on July 27 it was an order by a senior railway official asking employees to stockpile rations for four months. The revocation of Article 35A and Article 370 (the latter gives autonomy to the state government of Jammu & Kashmir) is one of the promises listed in the Bharatiya Janata Party’s manifesto for the April-may Parliamentary elections which saw the party return to power with 303 seats out of 543 in the Lok Sabha. There has been no official statement or even signal that either could be revoked soon, but J&K is abuzz with speculation that they will be.

On Monday, the cause was the order issued by Senior Superintendent of Police Srinagar, Haseeb Mughal .