After the bomb blasts near the Red Fort in Delhi and the unearthing of a Jaish terror module led by the Imam of a local mosque in Kashmir, Jammu and Kashmir Police has now launched a major surveillance operation to collect detailed information about all the mosques in the valley. It includes information about the Islamic sect followed by the mosque, capacity, construction cost, monthly budget and funding sources. The data being collected will also include biometric data of imams, muezzins, management committee members and charity wings, as well as details of land and other properties near the mosques for the day-to-day operations of the mosques.
Police are also seeking detailed personal information of persons associated with these religious institutions, which includes details of mobile phone model, IMEI number, social media accounts, bank and ATM cards, ration cards and credit cards. A four-page form has been distributed in many parts of the valley, with one page for information related to the mosque and three pages for personal details of the people who manage or serve the mosques.
Police has been running campaigns earlier also
However, this is not the first time that the police is collecting information about mosques and their members, as such information has been sought earlier also. Earlier, the police used to collect details about non-local imams and other people working in mosques as per tenant verification model to keep track of non-locals in their operational areas and these were local level operations.
Information about ideological sect of mosques also
However, this time the scale and scope of the operation has been increased, including the identity of the mosque’s ideological sect like Barelvi, Hanafi, Deobandi or Ahl-Hadith, physical structure, number of floors, estimated construction cost and funding sources, besides details of the entire family of mosque management committee members, Imams, Muezzins, Khateebs are being sought. Charity activities run by local mosques (Bait-ul-Maal) are also being investigated and details of beneficiary members are being sought.
Complete information about all the people associated with mosques
Personal information such as date of birth, phone numbers, email addresses and educational qualifications are being sought to conduct background checks to weed out any anti-national or terrorist supporter from the list. According to the form issued by the police, passport information, travel history, information about relatives living abroad, voter ID number, Aadhaar details, driving license number, ration card details, bank account information, PAN, as well as ATM and credit card details of people living abroad have also been sought from all the people associated with the mosques.
Uneasiness among the people of the valley
The form also seeks information about monthly income and expenditure, ownership of property with estimated value, previous involvement in militancy or criminal activities, presence on social media and mobile applications used. This exercise has spread uneasiness among many people in the valley, some people are calling it interference not only in religious matters but also in the personal lives of the people.
Although the police has neither denied nor officially confirmed this survey, sources have said that this exercise has been going on since the month of November and the officials have been asked to collect the filled forms and submit them as soon as possible.
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