For the 36th consecutive year, Indian authorities in occupied Jammu and Kashmir denied permission for the traditional Ashura procession in Srinagar on Sunday. Mourners’ requests to march from Bota Kadal to Zadibal via Mill Stop were outright rejected by Srinagar’s Senior Superintendent of Police, who cited “security concerns.” A heavily restricted alternate route was permitted, under conditions that strip the procession of its religious and political symbolism, effectively criminalizing expressions of Shia or Kashmiri identity.
The district magistrate’s conditional approval for a fragmented route (Bota Kadal to Imambara Zadibal) bans all “anti-India or anti-authority” slogans and prohibits banners featuring pro-freedom symbols, images of resistance figures, or references to Kashmiri liberation groups. Authorities also barred loudspeakers, public address systems, and temporary stages, demanding advance submission of participants’ names to police. Violations risk immediate arrest under draconian “public order” laws, a move Shia leader Agha Syed Muhammad Hadi condemned as “state-sanctioned desecration of faith”.
Ashura processions in Srinagar were observed freely until 1989, when then Governor Jagmohan banned them during the Kashmiri uprising. While limited 8th Muharram processions were permitted in recent years on the Gurubazar-Dalgate route, the 10th Muharram march, the ritual’s climax remains prohibited. This year’s crackdown follows police cases against mourners during 8th Muharram observances, accused of “disturbing communal harmony” by chanting pro-freedom slogans. For Kashmiris, Ashura has become intertwined with resistance, echoing cries of “We Want Freedom” and “Down with India” amid brute-force dispersals.
The ban reflects India’s systematic campaign to erase Kashmiri Muslim identity. Since 2019, Modi’s regime has intensified restrictions on worship, locking Srinagar’s historic Jamia Mosque, militarizing the Dargah Hazratbal shrine, and denying passports for Hajj to activists. As Kashmir Media Service notes, India aims to sever the symbolic link between Ashura’s narrative of martyrdom and Kashmir’s liberation struggle, fearing processions become “freedom rallies.” Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry condemned the restrictions as “Hindutva-driven religious apartheid”.
Despite UN experts decrying the bans as violations of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Western governments remain silent. Meanwhile, Kashmiris persist in likening Modi to “Yazid of the time”, drawing parallels between Imam Hussain’s seventh-century oppressor and India’s modern-day subjugation. With over 96,454 Kashmiris killed since 1989, the struggle for religious freedom remains inseparable from the fight for self-determination.