Six Plaques In One Year At Hazratbal Shrine: Jammu Kashmir Waqf Board Faces Scrutiny After Emblem Row
A political row has erupted after the plaque bearing Ashoka emblem was defaced by devotees amid allegations of misuse of places of worship for politics.
Published : September 6, 2025 at 7:44 PM IST
|Updated : September 6, 2025 at 8:09 PM IST
Srinagar: The inauguration stone plaque with Ashoka Emblem, which was defaced and damaged by stones by devotees in Jammu and Kashmir’s Hazratbal shrine, was the sixth commemorative name plate erected in the shrine premises over the past year.
The move has prompted police to file a case after J&K Waqf Board chairperson Darkshan Andrabi condemned the act as 'nothing less than terrorism' and called for slapping perpetrators with the Public Safety Act (PSA).
Initially, the colourful interior renovation and Khatamband works inside the shrine had earned Andrabi applause from Muslims after the shrine was opened to the public, almost a year after work began on September 3. Two days later, the stone plaque was defaced by devotees, who said that the symbol was prohibited at a mosque under Islamic law.
However, the incident has prompted political parties and people to question whether there is a ‘political motive’ behind these developmental projects, following the erection of a series of nameplates at the shrine.
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah questioned the installation of the stone plaque, arguing the work should speak for itself. He drew a comparison between the National Conference founder and his grandfather, Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah, who led the reconstruction of the shrine and crowdfunding without erecting such a marker in his name at the shrine. “But people remember his work despite not putting up stones or nameplates," Abdullah said.
The chief minister also questioned engraving the national emblem on the religious institution, saying they are meant to be used for government events.
"Mosques, Dargahs, Temples, and Gurdwaras are not government places. They are religious places. Government emblems are not used there,” Abdullah added.
Situated on the banks of Dal Lake in Srinagar, the white-dome shrine holds immense reverence in Kashmir because it houses the holy relic of the Prophet of Islam. It is displayed to devotees on special occasions such as Eid Milaad, the birth anniversary of the Prophet, falling on the 12th Rabi ul Awwal, the third month of the Islamic calendar.
Hazratbal is the spiritual heart of the Muslims of Jammu and Kashmir, said Mutahida Majlis-e-Ulema (MMU), a grouping of religious organisations led by Valley’s chief cleric Mirwaiz Umar Farooq.
Islam, according to the MMU, is explicit in its teachings that plaques, emblems, figures or symbols are prohibited in mosques or shrines.
“This principle has been honoured across our land for generations. Even when the Hazratbal Shrine was rebuilt in the past in the 1970s, no plaques or foundation stones were placed, out of respect for the injunctions of Shari‘ah and tradition. To introduce them now sets a dangerous and unnecessary precedent,” said Mirwaiz.
The construction of a new dome-shaped mosque was led by National Conference founder Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah in the late 1960s, following crowd funding from people. The theft of the holy relic popularly known as moi-e-muqadas movement triggered widespread outrage and unrest in the region that contributed to the fall of NC's rival, Bakshi Ghulam Mohammad-led government.
The ruling party has maintained close ties and influence over the shrine, as Sheikh and, later, his son, NC President Farooq Abdullah, would deliver speeches from the shrine. In fact, the clerics would often send prayers for Sheikh on Friday congregations till recently. But once the Waqf Board was taken over by the incumbent BJP leader in 2022, a turf war has been quite evident at Hazratbal.
Among the changes was the removal of Mufti Kamaludin Farooqui, whose forefathers had led and delivered sermons at the pulpit for over a century, for alleged forcible conversion of a non-Muslim. But the former scientist at Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences, who has ties to NC, has been banned from entering the shrine by the Board over conversion of non-Muslim since 2014 and replaced by another cleric, Maulana Riyaz Ul Haq. The ban exists despite the non-local man deposing in a Srinagar court that he was not pressurised by Farooqui to convert to Islam.
Farooqi had been leading Friday prayers and sermons since 2016, and his family history traces the association with the Dargah for the last over 300 years. But he accuses the Board of an arbitrary decision to deliberately keep him out of the shrine for 'vested interests'.
But the change was quite evident to devotees after clerics often prayed from the pulpit for the well-being of Andrabi on the Friday congregation for carrying out development works in the shrine. These works range from marble floor laying to sanitary complex, renovation works and carpeting. The nameplate for each work is prominently displayed on walls with Andrabi’s name, along with Waqf officials engraved on each granite plaque. But only the board erected by the Waqf on September 3, announcing renovation of the shrine, had the national emblem, while the rest have the Waqf logo at the top, sparking a major row.
It starts from the main entrance, where a black granite ‘floor laying’ nameplate greets people, followed by a board on either side of the two walls of the mosque. This included the defaced board and aluminium enclosure for the entrance courtyard, inaugurated in August 2024.
Former Chief Minister and Peoples Democratic Party president Mehbooba Mufti said that successive governments undertook developmental works of the Hazratbal shrine but refrained from what she described as “un-Islamic practices.”
“This was not a BJP function. Unfortunately, the sanctity of Hazratbal was compromised in this manner,” she said, urging respect for the religious significance of such places.
Many devotees also pointed out the photos and hoardings of chairperson Darakshan Andrabi greeting visitors to the shrine, not only at the Hazratbal shrine but wherever annual fairs are observed.
"Last month, a photo of the madam was placed at the Makhdoom sahib shrine in Srinagar's hilltop. The Waqf should understand the sanctity of these sacred places and avoid such things which are prohibited," said Khurshid Ahmad of Srinagar.
A 70-year-old Mujavir (a managing committee member) at Khanqah mosque in Srinagar said that this is against her own order when Waqf banned tying a turban on influential political and influential leaders.
"But she was recently crowned and honoured by religious men at Hazratbal after throwing open the renovated Dargah. None dared to object to it,” he added.
The Waqf banned tying turban (Dastarbandi) under Waqf Act 1995 in 2022 in the view that religious places such as Ziyarats, Khanqahs, Masjids and Darul Ulooms. Dastaar Bandi at such places can only be carried out to felicitate people for their achievements in the religious field, the order said.
"Initially, people hailed her contribution. But the credits and nameplates defeat the purpose," he added.
Local BJP leader, Altaf Thakur, who addressed a presser here on Saturday, backed the Waqf Chairperson amid the row while calling for strict action against the "goons and terror elements" behind the defacement of the stone plaque.
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