India Forces Kashmiri Muslims in Mosque to Chant Hindu Slogans Like “Jai Shri Ram”

On the intervening night of June 23rd and June 24th, Indian armed forces forced Kashmiri Muslim villagers in south Kashmir’s Pulwama district to chant the Hindu ‘Jai Shri Ram’ slogan inside a mosque.

In a report by The Wire, locals state that a group of soldiers from the Army’s 50 Rashtriya Rifles first arrived in the village and during the ‘operation’, army soldiers detained at least 10 youngsters of the village, five of whom were beaten up severely. They used a belt to beat them up, inflicting serious bruises upon them, for which the locals have produced photographic evidence.

At the crack of dawn, when the local muezzin (caller to prayer) went inside the mosque to do Adhan, the Indian soldiers followed him and in the middle of the Adhan, forced him to chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’ on the loudspeaker. The soldiers also forced the detained youngsters to chant the same slogan in chorus behind the muezzin.

An officer of the Indian Army in Jammu and Kashmir was later, on 26th June, removed from duty for the human rights violations and torture that the villagers complained about. The removal came after the incident was brought to light on social media and media, and strong protest was registered against it across Kashmiri religious and civil society. The villagers themselves took to the streets in a protest.