The Indian government on Friday released Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, an influential imam under house arrest in Indian-administered Kashmir since 2019, police and witnesses said.
The police placed him under house arrest in August 2019, when the Hindu nationalist government revoked the semi-autonomy status of Indian Kashmir, under tight security surveillance, in order to place the region under its direct authority.
The imam, now aged 50, was arrested along with other political leaders and thousands of Kashmiris.
Most of the detainees were subsequently released, but the imam remained under house arrest, very close to his Jamia Masjid mosque in Srinagar.
Women offered him treats in abundance and religious slogans echoed around the 14th-century building, where thousands of worshipers gathered to attend his Friday prayers, the first in 218 weeks.
“This period of house arrest and separation from my people has been the most painful for me since the death of my father,” he said.
The cleric told the crowd that police told him on Thursday that authorities had decided to release him. Last week, a local court asked authorities to explain his continued detention.
“You might think our morale is low. No, our morale is high,” said the imam, describing the constitutional changes made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government as “unacceptable.”
Modi “said about Ukraine that this is not the time for war. He is right,” he argued.
“Disputes and disagreements should be resolved through negotiation rather than the use of force or unilateralism,” he added before calling for the release of “many political prisoners.”
Reinforced security forces, including counter-insurgency police and commandos, were deployed around the mosque.
“Our beloved king of hope has returned to this mosque after so long. How can we not cry with joy?”, greeted a faithful, Bashir Ahmed, after the prayer.
Kashmir is divided between India and Pakistan which, since their independence resulting from the partition of British India in 1947, claim sovereignty over the entirety of this predominantly Muslim Himalayan territory. It was the cause of two of the three wars between them since.
The Indian-administered part has seen more than three decades of unrest, which has left tens of thousands dead. New Delhi accuses Islamabad of supporting the rebels, which Pakistan denies.
Since the revocation of semi-autonomy, the separatist insurgency has largely been crushed, although young men continue to join it.
This month, a surge in violence has left at least 14 dead, including eight among security forces.
22/09/2023 15:01:11 – Srinagar (Inde) (AFP) – © 2023 AFP