Thirteen miscreants have been arrested for raising “anti-national slogans” inside Srinagar’s Jamia Masjid, police said on Saturday.

Slogans were raised by group of miscreants after congressional prayers on Friday.

Dossiers of all these accused are being prepared for booking them under the Public Safety Act (PSA) that allows detention of any individual for up to two years without a trial.
Police said, it also came out during initial investigation that the accused, in furtherance of a well planned conspiracy, had received instructions from Pakistani handlers of terror outfits to disrupt Friday prayers in Jamia Masjid and create law and order situation by provoking the attendees. Thus section 120B was also invoked in this case.

Investigation in this case is undergoing at fast pace and some more arrests are likely, police said.

The downtown mosque was recently allowed to resume Friday congregational prayers after a long closure due to Covid-19 and abrogation of Article 370.

This is the second major crackdown since 2021 on miscreants involved in sloganeering inside the grand mosque.

Police said that yesterday afternoon, there were Friday prayers in Jamia Masjid wherein huge number of gathering took place, around twenty four thousand persons attended the Friday prayers, which is among largest in recent history.

After culmination of prayers, about a dozen persons started anti-national and provocative sloganeering, this was joined by a couple of others as well, while most of the gathering remained aloof. There was also altercation between the persons indulging in sloganeering and the volunteers of intezamia committee of Jamia Masjid who tried to stop such sloganeering and hooliganism.

This created a situation of ruckus inside the mosque leading to clashes between them. Later the hooligans were dispersed outside the mosque by volunteers.

Even after coming outside from one gate, more than a dozen among them tried to provoke others by sloganeering which failed and they dispersed in hurry seeing police presence around.

A case in this regards was registered in Nowhatta Police Station as FIR no 16/2022 under sections 124A and 447 of IPC.

During course of investigation, technical means were adopted to identify these hooligans and raids were conducted at different locations which led to arrest of two Main instigators of the sloganeering namely Basharat Nabi Bhat, resident of Hawal, Nowhatta and Umar Manzoor Sheikh, resident of Bahuddin Saab, Nowhatta. Both were apprehended and formally arrested in the case.

Eleven more accused were subsequently arrested in this case who were involved in sloganeering and hooliganism inside the Jamia Masjid and at the gate.

Many more suspected persons are being examined and will be formally arrested as soon as their role clearly comes forth in this case.

Srinagar Police warned all citizens that “any attempt at disrupting peace will be viewed very seriously, strictest action under provisions of law will be taken against all those
who get involved in such illegal activities. In addition to this, no attempt at using religious places for furthering anti-national and terrorist agenda will be tolerated at all”.

The police urged parents to keep a watch on company of their children, indulging in such activities as this may cause irreparable damage to their career prospects”.