AIMF condemns desecration of mosque by army

New Delhi, June 11 (UNI) The All India Minorities Front today condemned the alleged desecration of a mosque by security forces in Kupwara in Jammu and Kashmir on Friday.

In a statement here, the national president of the AIMF S M Asif alleged that a patrol party entered a mosque at Zirhama, about 10 km from Kupwara, on Friday night without removing their shoes.

Alleging that the security personnel threw holy books like Koran out of the mosque, Mr Aif demanded that the Chief of Army Staff should publicly and personally apologise to the community and give an undertaking that such an unholy acts would not be repeated anywhere in the country.

''The incident happened on Friday night at about 9 P.M and even two days after the incident, Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad has neither visited the area nor spoken a word and has criminally left the people of Kupwara at the mercy of the state and police bureaucracy, which should not be accepted and tolerated in a democracy,'' Mr Asif said.

He alleged that when the public protested against the ''unholy, undemocratic and reasonless acts of the army,'' one person was killed and ten injured by army's firing from inside the army camp.

He demanded a high level probe, by a sitting judge of high court from outside J and K, into the desecration and subsequent incidents of firing.

UNI AR LR RS1820