Kashmir mob ransacks restaurant over “immoral” activities

INDIA: Protesters in Indian Kashmir’s summer capital ransacked a restaurant, setting furniture ablaze, to protest what they charged were “immoral activities” taking place inside.

The protest in Srinagar was the latest in a drive by conservatives in this Muslim-majority state to stamp out “immorality.”

“We stormed the hotel after learning that immoral activities have been going on there,” one protester, who declined to give his name, told AFP.

“We could see men and women sitting together and doing acts not permitted by Islam,” he shouted, as other people joined in and started pelting stones at police who were seeking to halt the violence.

The campaign to end “immorality” in Kashmir was started in 2005 by an all-women separatist group Dukhtaran-e-Milat, or Daughters of Faith. They have been raiding restaurants and Internet cafes to stop them being used by dating couples.

Police said they were investigating whether Dukhtaran activists were among the crowd who barged into the restaurant and set alight the furniture after dragging it out of the building. The protesters also torched a car.

Daughters of Faith leader Aasiya Andrabi has in the past smeared black paint on racy Bollywood film posters and demanded that women veil themselves fully.

Srinagar, Sunday, AFP