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Kashmir Police Profiling of Mosques and Madrasas Draws Demands to Halt Exercise

Officials privately link the forms to a recent ‘white‑collar’ terror probe, with no public legal basis or data‑use safeguards from police.

Overview

  • Multi‑page proformas seek granular institutional, financial, personal and digital details, including sect affiliation, funding sources, Aadhaar, bank and card data, passport and travel history, IMEI numbers and social‑media accounts.
  • Village numberdars have been tasked with distributing and collecting the forms across the Valley, with officials describing a focus on finances and creation of a comprehensive database.
  • The Mutahida Majlis‑e‑Ulema and opposition leaders, including Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, Aga Syed Ruhullah Mehdi and Mehbooba Mufti, call the exercise intrusive and discriminatory and demand its withdrawal.
  • Police have not issued an official statement explaining the purpose, legal basis or safeguards, and earlier mosque‑related verifications cited by locals were narrower than the current effort.
  • Unnamed officials tie the drive to investigations after a November bust of a ‘white‑collar’ terror module, with probes examining radicalisation via madrassas and naming specific imams such as Molvi Irfan Ahmed Wagay.