Thieves steal electric transformer, curtains from mosque in J&K's Ganderbal

Srinagar, Aug 29 (IANS) In a bizarre incident, thieves descended on a mosque in Jammu and Kashmir’s Ganderbal district and stole the electric transformer and curtains.

The management committee of the mosque in Kangan town of the district said on Friday that thieves barged into the Iqbalabad Masjid Shareef in the Kangan area of Ganderbal district overnight and decamped with an automatic electric transformer and curtains used in the mosque.

According to the Masjid Committee, the theft was noticed early Friday morning when locals found the transformer missing and the curtains stolen.

The incident has angered the locals, who expressed dismay over the incident. The Masjid Committee members alleged that the act may be the handiwork of drug addicts active in the area, who often resort to theft to buy drugs.

They urged the police to intensify night patrolling and launch a swift investigation to trace the culprits.

Locals also appealed to the district administration and law enforcement agencies to take strict action against those responsible, stressing that repeated incidents of theft in and around mosques are hurting the religious sentiments of the community.

Police have taken cognisance of the matter, and further investigation is underway.

During the worst periods of terrorism in the mid and late 1990s, terrorists have used mosques and shrines in the Valley as shelters to protect themselves from the security forces.

The worst of such incidents was the stand-off between the hiding terrorists and the security forces in the Charar-e-Sharief town of Budgam district that houses the shrine of Kashmir’s patron Sufi saint, Sheikh Nurruddin Wali, referred to as the 'Nund Rishi' by local Kashmiri Pandits.

The Charar-e-Sharief siege was a 66-day standoff in 1995 between terrorists led by a foreign terrorist commander, Mast Gul and Indian security forces in the Budgam district of Jammu and Kashmir.

The siege ended in a devastating fire that destroyed the historic 14th-century Sufi shrine and many homes.

The terrorists ignited the blaze as a final measure to escape, displacing thousands of residents and causing widespread destruction in the town.

--IANS

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