SRINAGAR: PDP president Mehbooba Mufti on Monday announced that her party will approach Hazratbal police station to register an FIR against Jammu and Kashmir Waqf Board chairperson Darakshan Andrabi for allegedly hurting Muslim sentiments over a plaque bearing the national emblem at the Hazratbal shrine.
In a post on X, the former chief minister said the PDP had initially approached Nigeen police station, but the request to file the FIR was denied. “After being denied at Nigeen Police Station, PDP will now approach Hazratbal Police Station. I urge @JmuKmrPolice to initiate an FIR immediately given the gravity of the offence—deliberately hurting the religious sentiments of Muslims,” she wrote.
The controversy began after a plaque with the Ashoka emblem was placed inside the Hazratbal shrine, which houses a relic of Prophet Muhammad, on Thursday. The emblem was vandalized on Friday, prompting widespread criticism. Many political parties accused Andrabi of hurting religious sentiments and demanded her removal along with a criminal case.
Chief Minister Omar Abdullah stated that the Waqf Board should apologize for the “mistake,” emphasizing that the national emblem is intended for government use, not religious institutions. Parties including the NC, PDP, and CPI(M) condemned the use of the emblem in the mosque as “provocative” and blasphemous, while the BJP criticized the vandalism, calling it an attempt to revive terrorism and separatism in the Valley.
Abdullah remarked, “Mosques, shrines, temples, and gurudwaras are not government institutions. Government emblems should not be used in religious spaces.”
The situation intensified when Andrabi, a BJP appointee, called for legal action under the stringent Public Safety Act (PSA) against those who vandalized the emblem. Abdullah criticized her response, saying the board “played with the sentiments of the people” and resorted to threats instead of apologizing.
PDP leader Iltija Mufti highlighted on X that Muslims often face legal action even when they are victims. “When innocent Muslims across India are lynched or their shops ransacked, FIRs are filed against victims, not culprits. In Kashmir, when religious sentiments of the majority are hurt, they are booked under anti-terror laws at the insistence of those who instigated them,” she said, adding that in India, the law has become “a metaphor of madness and illogical absurdity.”
