By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Saturday sharply criticised India for what it described as the intrusive profiling of mosques and their management committees in the disputed territory of Kashmir, calling the move a blatant violation of religious freedom and part of a wider campaign of discrimination against Muslims.
The condemnation from Pakistan’s Foreign Office came in response to reports that police in occupied Kashmir had begun circulating forms demanding detailed personal and financial information from mosque leaders, seminary teachers and committee members. According to local residents and Kashmiri leaders cited in a Hindustan Times report, the forms sought data including Aadhaar card numbers, bank accounts, property ownership, social media handles, passports, ration cards, driving licenses, SIM card details, mobile phone models and IMEI numbers, as well as the religious sect affiliated with each mosque.
A lawmaker from Srinagar, speaking to the Hindustan Times, labelled the initiative an infringement on the religious freedoms enshrined in India’s constitution, arguing that it was designed to exert control over religion and mosques.
In its statement, the Foreign Office portrayed the effort as yet another coercive tactic to intimidate and marginalise the Muslim population in the region, which Pakistan refers to as Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir. “The forcible collection of personal details, photographs and sectarian affiliations of religious functionaries amounts to systematic harassment, aimed at instilling fear among worshippers and obstructing the free exercise of their faith,” the statement said.
Pakistani officials viewed the actions as emblematic of institutionalised Islamophobia fueled by the Hindutva ideology of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government. “The selective targeting of mosques and Muslim clergy lays bare the discriminatory and communal character of these policies,” the Foreign Office added, asserting that Kashmiris hold an inalienable right to practice their religion without fear, coercion or discrimination. Pakistan pledged to maintain its solidarity with the people of the territory and to continue highlighting instances of religious persecution and intolerance directed at them.
The rebuke arrives amid growing international scrutiny of minority rights in India. Just days earlier, the US-based research group India Hate Lab reported a 13 percent rise in hate speech against minorities, including Muslims and Christians, in 2025, with the majority of incidents occurring in states ruled by Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party. Human rights organisations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have documented a surge in abuses against minorities since Modi assumed office in 2014. Among the measures cited by critics are a religion-based citizenship law, anti-conversion statutes that curb freedom of belief, the 2019 revocation of Kashmir’s special autonomous status and the demolition of properties owned by Muslims.
Discriminatory acts have extended beyond Muslims, as seen in attacks on Christian celebrations last December. In Chhattisgarh, a mob armed with wooden sticks vandalised Christmas decorations and installations ahead of the holiday. In a separate incident in Assam’s Nalbari district, members of the far-right Vishva Hindu Parishad Bajrang Dal group torched festival items and protested against the observances at a local school.
The Foreign Office’s statement also follows a November warning from United Nations experts about serious human rights violations in occupied Kashmir, issued in the wake of an attack in Pahalgam.
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