‘Prayers banned even in Ramadan but yoga facilitated’

In Kashmir, the Yoga celebration by Indian government has evoked sharp criticism from the Kashmiri netizens on social networking sites with some saying that India is imposing its culture on Kashmir to dilute the Kashmir identity and history.”

A netizen, Amir Qayoom quoted US President Barack Obama on a social networking site as having said, “The worst thing that colonialism did was to cloud our view of our past.”

“This yoga proves that India wants to cloud our history and superimpose its culture and identity on us. It is an open onslaught which needs to be resisted to save our cultural identity”.

Azhar Manzoor, another netizen posted on Facebook that, “The Indians are trying to ruin our culture and make our children shameless.”

The net users wrote that Kashmiris were denied visit to their holy places, but the authorities were making all arrangements for the Yoga. “It’s only unfortunate that on very first day of holy Ramadan we were not allowed to offer Friday Namaz. Jamia Masjid was locked. And now on International Yoga Day, Muslim students are facilitated to perform the un-Islamic yoga exercise,” Suhail Manzoor posted.