Please leave us alone, we will not perform: Kashmir all-girl band

Kashmir’s first all girl rock band today declared that they would not perform any more after a fatwa was issued against them by the head Grand Mufti and asked to be left alone. In a statement today, one of the band members said, “Please leave as alone. We will not perform anymore. We have taken decision as Grant Mufti has banned us.We respect him we respect his decision.” “Noma quits”, “Farah quits also” — the two messages were posted by two of Kashmir’s first three-girl rock band, Praagaash (from darkness to light), on Monday on a Facebook page created enthusiastically after it performed first time in December last year. The announcement to call it a day comes despite assurances from Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah as well as other civil society organisations [caption id=“attachment_614747” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Screen grab from ibnlive[/caption] Reports said the band quit after receiving threats and abuses against them on their Facebook page. The Jammu and Kashmir Police registered a case under Section 66 A of the IT Act and Section 506 IPC (Criminal Intimidation) and identified several Facebook users who had posted abusive and threatening messages on the page of the only all-girls rock band of the Valley, reported Times of India. However, one of the band members said today that they did not quit because of threats on Facebook. “We did not quit because of Facebook opposition. It is not justified but all this can not happen in Kashmir as it is against their ethics and morals, we can not help it” she said. The Grand Mufti of Kashmir Bashir-ud-Din had said that women must live in purdah at all times. Blaming women for the increase in crimes against them, he said that women must desist from performing in public as otherwise, there would be no difference between “our women and film actresses”. Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah was among a large number of political leaders who extended their unflinching support to the girls, urging them not to quit singing because of a “bunch of morons” However, the fatwa prompted relatives of the band members living in the state to reportedly flee their homes, saying that they felt unsafe. The Hindu, quoting a relative of one of the band members said that the band has been ‘shut’. “Nobody is safe here. The Chief Minister’s tweets and the police can’t protect us. We don’t want to get caught in politics,” one of the relatives told The Hindu.