I’ve nothing to do with cop’s lynching: Mirwaiz Umar Farooq

Srinagar: Kashmir’s chief Muslim cleric and separatist leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq has ridiculed what he said are “deliberate and impish attempts” to drag his name into the brutal lynching of a police officer outside Srinagar’s Grand Mosque on Thursday night.

“I have strongly condemned the act already. But as usual, most Indian propaganda media mill has found grist in this sad death to further its propaganda against the resistance leadership and the movement,” he said. He added, “They are even reporting falsely that when the incident happened I was present in the mosque. I reached the mosque at 12.30am while the incident had happened before that,” he said in a statement here.

He reiterated it in a tweet saying “Check the facts and not get swayed by the propaganda, which is at least expected of @praveenswami,” he tweeted on Saturday.

The Mirwaiz had on Friday tweeted “Deeply disturbed & condemn the brutal act at Nowhatta. Mob violence & public lynching is outside the parameters of our values & religion....We cannot allow state brutality to snatch our humanity & values.” While retweeting it, noted journalist Praveen Swami wrote on Twitter: “Now if only Mirwaiz had summoned the courage to say this while the man was being lynched, this tweet might have been less bathetic.” In another tweet, he said “Irony: officer was one of several deployed with the knowledge of the Jamia Masjid authorities for security. His brother is a pro-secessionist lawyer.”

Responding to Mr Farooq’s tweet, Mr Swami said, “Lynching took place at 11.45pm. You arrived at 12.25am, and were informed of what had transpired. You tweeted condemnation at 11.53am. Fact?” Mr Farooq had tweeted in condemnation of the incident at 11.53am on June 23, a night after a mob stripped and brutally murdered deputy superintendent of police (3 Security) Muhammad Ayub Pandith.