Kashmir's top Muslim clergy said on Friday they would launch a massive campaign against the Indian army renovating mosques and shrines in the region if the prime minister and president did not stop it.Muslim leaders in the revolt-torn region have taken offence to an Indian army programme to repair Islamic holy places as part of a campaign that aims to win the "hearts and minds" of the local population. They say only Muslims could carry out such work and an influential Muslim cleric issued a fatwa this week against using money from the army.
"We ask Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam to instruct the army not to interfere in the religious affairs of Kashmiri Muslims under the garb of 'Operation Sadbhavna'," said a joint statement issued by more than 70 leading clerics in the country's only Muslim-majority state. The statement said a resolution was passed late on Thursday after a meeting of Muslim priests led by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, Kashmir's chief cleric and head of the moderate separatist political alliance, the All Parties Hurriyat Conference. "We will go to any extent for safeguarding Islam," the statement added.
The army has built schools, bus stations and organised medical camps under "Operation Sadbhavna", or goodwill, in Kashmir, where officials say more than 42,000 people have been killed in the 17-year insurgency against Indian rule. The army says it has spent about 5.2 million rupees in the past three years to renovate mosques and Muslim shrines but it is currently not undertaking any work. Army officers say the renovation was done only after a request from the people of Kashmir.