Edict against Indian army in Kashmir

A top Muslim cleric has issued an edict against the Indian army for renovating mosques in Indian Kashmir and urged Muslims to resist such moves "tooth and nail."

The fatwa by Mufti Bashirudin -- Kashmir's grand mufti -- declared that Islam permits only Muslims to carry out work on their shrines.

"No person, organisation, other than Muslims can construct, reconstruct, renovate any mosque or shrine," the professional jurist and scholar, who interprets Muslim law, said in a statement released late Tuesday.

"I appeal to all the Muslims in general and Islamic clerics, scholars and imams to resist such plans tooth and nail," he said, calling upon Muslims to repay the army for the work it has carried out.

The army has spent 5.5 million rupees renovating various Sufi shrines and mosques as a "goodwill gesture" for a war-weary public that generally views Indian soldiers as occupiers.

An estimated half-a-million Indian soldiers are in Kashmir battling a separatist revolt that erupted in 1989. The war has claimed at least 42,000 lives, more than a third of them civilians, according to official figures.

The grand mufti branded the Indian army's renovations a "naked interference" in religious matters.

The army has launched operation "sadbhavana" or goodwill across Kashmir and set about rebuilding schools, bridges and roads in rural areas.

Most Kashmiris follow the traditionally apolitical Sufi branch of Islam, and some clerics have urged a boycott of mosques and shrines renovated by the army.