Describing the hanging of Yakub Memon as extremely unfortunate, Hurriyat Conference (M) Chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq Friday termed the hanging as the murder of humanitarian values and established norms of justice.While talking to media persons outside Jamia Masjid after Friday prayers, he said, “It was a cause of concern that convicts of Muslim faith were selectively being executed and punished with death in India. It smacks of duplicity when we see that in India persons belonging to a particular community only are sentenced to death and executed on the pretext “to satisfy the collective conscience of the nation.”“The accused involved in other serious cases like Malegaon blast, Mecca Masjid blast, Babri Masjid demolition and Gujrat massacre were being dealt with a different yardstick whereas cases against Muslim accused were hurriedly concluded and sentences awarded while ignoring the procedure of law and norms of Justice and fair play. In the cases of Shaheed Afzal Guru and Shaheed Maqbool Bhat even the mortal remains of the persons were not handed over to their relatives after their execution,” Mirwaiz said.
During his Friday address at historic Jamia Masjid, the Hurriyat (M) chairman termed the interest free Islamic banking as the need of the hour. He appealed the business and trade fraternity to extend their cooperation in implementing the non interest based Islamic banking system in Kashmir.Mirwaiz said being head of Mutheda Majlis-e-Ulema, he would soon call a meeting of Ulema, heads of religious organizations, financial experts and other intellectuals to devise a comprehensive strategy to implement the system of interest free banking in Kashmir.“Time has come that religious heads, leaders and organizations start a public awareness campaign to promote the interest free banking in Kashmir. If Islamic banking could be started in other parts of the world then why its implementation was facing hurdles in the Muslim majority state of Kashmir,” he asked.
Asserting that one of the causes of immense problems faced by Kashmir was due to interest based banking and commerce, Mirwaiz stated that interest based trade and commerce has led us to many miseries and socio-economic problems.The Hurriyat (M) Chairman said Kashmir was suffering from unusual climatic changes which had triggered torrential rains, cloud bursts, high velocity winds and other related problems, adding, it was happening since we have distanced ourselves from the path of Allah. He stated that due to unusual weather, heavy losses were incurred on our life and property across the land of Kashmir.