Islamic school’s building demolished in Kashmir by India

On October 10, India demolished a building of Darul Uloom (Islamic seminary) in a village of south Kashmir’s Pulwama district. 

According to a government official, the action was taken on the recommendations of the National Investigation Agency (NIA). NIA has been leading the illegal crackdown against the Kashmiri self-determination movement by detaining all dissenters and pro-freedom activists, and in some cases, even confiscating their homes. 

The administrators of the seminary are also in illegal detention, as they have been accused of supporting the Kashmiri freedom movement, which India labels as “terrorism” or “secessionism”. 

Islamic Seminaries in Kashmir are sources of education for the most marginalized and needy sections of the society, especially the orphans. The students usually live in these seminaries, where they are provided with all the basic necessities of life, free of any cost.

In the past, India has shut down hundreds of similar schools for the needy, whose administrators were also accused of participating in the Kashmiri right to self-determination movement or being “sympathetic” to it.