By Bilal Furqani, Agence India Press
Srinagar: No Friday prayers have been offered in the historic Jamia Masjid and other mosques located on main roads in the curfew bound areas in the Srinagar and rest part of Kashmir.
Police did not allow people to offer Friday congregational prayers at historic Jamia Masjid in old city and Dargah Sharief Hazratbal, on city outskirts.
Jamia Masjid in Srinagar. [File photo from AIP]
“We were not allowed to enter the mosque and were directed to go back,” said Abdul Wahid, a local resident of Hazratbal.
Residents of Nowhatta told Agence India Press over on phone, that all the roads leading to Jamia Masjid were sealed. Police and paramilitary CRPF troopers asked people to stay away from Masjid.
Troopers also did not allow people to assemble at Dargah for Friday prayers. “People who tried to move towards the Shrine were beaten to pulp,” locals said.
Reports said people were also not allowed to offer prayers in the mosques on the main roads in Srinagar and other districts where curfew remained imposed. However, Friday prayers were offered in small mosques in the interior localities.
Meanwhile forces arrested over 60 suspected separatist activists across Kashmir in an attempt to stem deadly civil unrest that has continued despite a curfew that was in its third day, police said Friday.
The arrests, carried out during overnight raids by police and paramilitary troops, were designed to put a lid on nearly three weeks of violent anti-India protests.
At least 30 separatist activists who had participated in recent street demonstrations were arrested in Anantnag,) south of Kashmir, said a police officer who spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak to the media.
He said at least 30 others were arrested in Srinagar and other towns in Kashmir.