The prophet cartoon frenzy is finally here in India. The Indian Prime Minister has expressed his "anguish" to his Danish counterpart even as protestors on Monday shut down Kashmir Valley and clashed with the police in capital New Delhi.
FIRED UP: Protesting students of Jamia Milia Islamia University burn copies of a magazine, which published a photograph of a Koranic verse tattooed on a womans bare back, in New Delhi, February 6. Riot police fired tear gas and water cannons at hundreds of protesting students. They were protesting the publication of cartoons of the prophet Mohammed in European newspapers. (AP Photo/Gurinder Osan)Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has conveyed his "outrage" to the Government of Denmark over the publication of "blasphemous" cartoons in Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten. The matter was taken up by the Prime Minister with the Government of Denmark as a follow-up to a letter written by Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad to Singh. Azad had expressed his "deep sense of anguish" on the "blasphemous" act, a release issued by the state government said.
Manmohan Singh, in a letter to Azad, has said that both the Danish government and its Foreign Affairs Ministry have condemned the publication. "The apology tendered by the Denmark Government and the action being taken against the newspaper's editor as a follow-up the of condemnation have been conveyed accordingly," the release claimed.
Life was on Monday paralysed in Azad's own state following a general strike called in protest against the cartoons. Shops and business establishments in Srinagar and almost all other major towns of the Kashmir Valley remained closed in response to the general strike called by the Kashmir Bar Association (KBA) and supported by a number of other social and religious organisations, besides trade federations. Police and paramilitary forces have been deployed in sufficient strength at vulnerable points in Srinagar to ensure that the situation remained under control, official sources said.
According to a GreaterKashmir.com report, slogan-shouting youths came out on the roads at many places in the old city and some parts of the town, burning tyres and pelting stones on police and vehicles. The angry youths were shouting slogans hailing Islam and the prophet, the report said.
AS FIRED UP: Protestors burn a symbolic Danish flag during a demonstration in Srinagar, February 6. Muslims rallied in Srinagar to show anger over cartoons of the prophet Mohammed in Western newspapers, crippling commerce in Jammu and Kashmir. Life was brought to a halt in the state by a strike called by the Kashmir Bar Association. (AP Photo/Dar Yasin)Many other organisations including Kashmir Traders and Manufacturers Federation and Employees Joint Action Committee (EJAC) had endorsed the strike call. "In the name of freedom of speech some Europeans are hurting the sentiments of Muslims by deliberately publishing the caricatures," the EJAC, the main union of the Jammu and Kashmir government employees, said in a statement.
"A Muslim can tolerate anything but insult to our beloved prophet Mohammed," Mian Abdul Qayyum, the president of Bar Association told a protest rally of lawyers at Lal Chowk. "It does not matter if you take a Muslim's life or that of his or her children and dear ones. But never even dare to say anything insulting to the prophet," he warned.
On Saturday, former Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah had said, in a statement, that the publication of the cartoons had hurt the religious sentiments of Muslims all over the world. "Muslims cannot tolerate derogatory remarks against their prophet, and Muslims leaders including President and Prime Minister of India should protest to the Denmark government in this regard," Abdullah had exhorted.
Meanwhile, about 2,000 students of Jamia Milia Islamia University clashed with the police on Monday when they were stopped on their way to the Danish embassy to protest against the caricatures of prophet Mohammed, according to the Indo-Asian News Service (IANS). The police said the students started to gather on Janpath Road in central Delhi in the afternoon and wanted to go to the Danish embassy to protest.
FANNING FIRE? Both former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir, Farooq Abdullah (left) and the present incumbent (right) have urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to take up the "blasphemous" cartoons issue with Denmark."When we tried to stop them, they started pelting us with stones," said Manish Agarwal, additional deputy commissioner of police. He said water canons had to be used to disperse the crowd. Some student leaders were also detained and were dropped back to the university campus. "We had come to know about their protest plan and had made arrangements in advance," IANS reported quoting Agarwal. He said the protestors had clashed with the police for an hour, though no one was injured. A group of five students was later allowed to go to the Danish embassy to present a memorandum.
The All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) too has stepped into the picture. AIMPLB member and Naib Imam of Eidgah Maulana Khalid Rasheed appealed to the Centre to take up with the Government of Denmark the recent publication of "derogatory graphics of prophet Mohammed in a newspaper of the country."
Rashid, also general secretary of the Islamic Centre of India, urged the government to lodge a formal protest over publication of these graphics "as they had hurt the religious sentiments of Muslims as well as all right-minded people of the world". Rashid was quoted by the Press Trust of India (PTI) as saying, "Muslims revere the prophet and these publications have hurt their feelings."
