KL NEWS NETWORK
SRINAGAR
Separatists Tuesday denounced the alleged sacrilegious act against holy Quran when a number of the holy copies were “found in a heap of filth along with other waste papers and things outside a factory of recycling such used items” in Bari-Brahmana Jammu.
Local Muslims had gathered there to protest “desecration of the holy book” and staged a peaceful sit in there.
“It is said that some book seller from the valley sent these copies of the holy book which were destroyed during September 2014 floods along with other waste material,” Jama’at-e-Islami (JeI) J&K said in a statement.
“JeI strongly condemns this sacrilegious act and expresses its deep anger and sorrow over it. The district head of Jama’at Jammu Abdul Karim Nadvi along with other local dignitaries visited the place of incident and expressed total solidarity with the agitating Muslims and demanded a stern and examplary punishment to those elements involved in this contemptuous act hurting the sentiments of Crores of Muslims throughout the world,” the statement said.
Democratic Freedom Party (DFP) Chairperson Shabir Ahmad Shah called for strong action against a local bookseller for selling of large quantity of “flood hit” copies of Holy Qur’an to a factory at Bari Brahmana.
Expressing strong resentment over the issue, Shah, in a statement said that those involved in the “heinous” crime must be punished and their publications must be boycotted.
“I appeal people to completely boycott the publications of such bookstores who are involved in such heinous act,” he said. “We’re going to constitute a probe team headed by Moulana Muhammad Abdullah Tari to ascertain the motives behind such provocative and nasty act of desecrating the Holy Scriptures and on whose behest it was carried out.”
Alleging that the bookseller/publisher hitherto made his living and acquired wealth through the business of selling holy books, Shah said that he was now resorting to this “cheap and nasty act just for petty material gains.”
“This is nothing but a sell-out of religion and faith,” he said. “It’s the belief of Muslims that Qur’an is not a creation but an entity associated with the characteristics of God. We can’t tolerate the desecration of the Holy Qur’an and can sacrifice our lives for its sanctity.”
Shah alleged that the stamp of the said publisher has been affixed on the flood hit scriptures at the Bari Brahmana factory and the papers were allegedly to be used for making of firecrackers. “If these traders were so obsessed with amassing wealth they should have started begging rather than stooping too low,” he added.
In its statement, JKLF (r) chairperson Farooq Ahmad Dar alias Bita Karetey expressed his deep anguish over the reports of selling of flood hit copies of Holy Quran by some unscrupulous traders and said that for the lust of wealth and money, they are bartering their faith with worldly belongings.
He called for stringent action against those involved in the heinous crime. “Desecration of Holy Quran is against all norms and we cannot tolerate this,” he said.
