SRINAGAR, Aug 8: Religious group Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI) has blamed Kashmir’s ruling political party National Conference for the death of a youth who was killed after clashes erupted in a mosque over a loudspeaker and has termed it a “political Killing”.
The Jamaat has accused the village head, affiliated with the National Conference (NC) sarpanch, and his associates of “attacking its cadre while they were praying” in Sandbal area of Ganderbal district, 30 kilometres from capital Srinagar.
“There was no sectarian clash inside the mosque or dispute over the loudspeaker. It was a unilateral attack where local NC sarpanch Muhammad Subhan Wani and his supporters barged into the mosque and attacked praying devotees. In the attack, Shabir Ahmad Bhat was killed,” said JeI chief Sheikh Muhammad Hassan said on Tuesday.
“It was a pre-planned attack carried out with a political vendetta.”
Spokesperson of the NC, Tanvir Sadiq has, however, rejected the allegations and has termed the sarpanch’s links with his part as “coincidental”.
“It was a sectarian clash. It’s absurd to bring our party in the clash. There was altercation inside the mosque and in a fit of rage one youth died in clash,” Sadiq was quoted as saying by Hindustan Times.
The spokesperson said his party “condemn the killing” and has also people to wait for the police to come up with the sequence of events to know the facts.
Senior separatist leader and chairman of the hardline Hurriyat Conference, who was among its towering members until his split from the part years ago, also has accused NC of having “a history of killing and attacking Jamaat for its ideology”.
“I appeal to people to maintain calm and not to fall trap to any sectarianism,” Geelani said.
