SRINAGAR: The hardline faction of Hurriyat Conference has distanced itself from the ‘decree’ against singing issued by grand mufti of Jammu and Kashmir and dismissed as “mere propaganda” the reported threats to the Valley’s maiden all-girls rock-band.
Earlier the Hurriyat’s chairman, Syed Ali Shah Geelani had taken a dig at Chief Minister Omar Abdullah for supporting the girls and pledging a probe into abusive comments on Facebook.
“We disassociate ourselves from the ‘fatwa’ issued by Mufti Bashiruddin (grand mufti of Jammu and Kashmir). People do not recognise him as grand mufti (chief cleric)… Only the government recognises him,” Hurriyat Conference spokesman Ayaz Akbar told PTI.
“It is mysterious…The way he issues fatwas…It arises lawlessness (sic),” Akbar said, adding fatwas can be issued only when a nation is governed under Shariah rule.
But he made no comments about the band itself, which has quit after days of uproar over their performance in December.
“There is no threat to the girls. Nobody has issued any threats. It is a mere propaganda by Indian media and they are making a big bomb out of a normal issue to defame Kashmiris,” he said.
But the party did not clarify if it meant that it approved of the band’s singing in the public.
