By IANS
Srinagar : Several Kashmiri religious leaders have endorsed issuing of 'fatwa' (edicts) against accepting money or help from the Indian Army in rebuilding the state's mosques and shrines, as they say it is against Islamic law.
In a unanimous resolution adopted here Thursday, more than 50 local ulemas, muftis and custodians of local shrines asked President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to restrain the army from trying to intervene financially or otherwise in the construction, renovation or repair of the local mosques and shrines.
"We have asked the president, who is also the supreme commander of the Indian Armed Forces, and the prime minister to restrain the army from trying to intervene in our religious matters," said Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, the valley's chief priest, who is also chairman of the moderate group of the separatist Hurriyat Conference.
Reacting to the fatwa, Lt. Col. A.K. Mathur, the spokesman of the army's 15th corps, Thursday again said that the army had no intention to intervene in the religious affairs of any community in the Valley.
On Tuesday, Kashmir's Grand Mufti, Mufti Muhammad Bashir-ud-Din had issued a fatwa here saying the army's assistance in construction of local mosques and shrines was "tantamount to intervention in the religious matters of the local Muslims".