The shrine was relatively unknown until the founder of the Ahmadiyya movement, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, claimed in 1899 that it is actually the tomb of Jesus.[2][3] This view is maintained by Ahmadis today,[1][2][3] though it is rejected by the local caretakers of the shrine, one of whom said "the theory that Jesus is buried anywhere on the face of the earth is blasphemous to Islam."[9]
^Ghulām Muhyi'd Dīn Sūfī Kashīr, being a history of Kashmir from the earliest times to our own 1974 – Volume 2 – Page 520 "Bal, in Kashmiri, means a place and is applied to a bank, or a landing place."
^B. N. Mullik – My years with Nehru: Kashmir – Volume 2 1971 – Page 117 "Due to the presence of the Moe-e-Muqaddas on its bank the lake gradually acquired the name Hazratbal (Bal in Kashmiri means lake) and the mosque came to be known as the Hazratbal Mosque. Gradually the present Hazratbal village grew ..."
^Nigel B. Hankin Hanklyn-janklin: a stranger's rumble-tumble guide to some words 1997 Page 125 (Although bal means hair in Urdu, in this instance the word is Kashmiri for a place – Hazratbal – the revered place.) HAZRI n Urdu Lit. presence, attendance. In British days the word acquired the meaning to Europeans and those associated with ..."
^Andrew Wilson The Abode of Snow: Observations on a Journey from Chinese Tibet to ... 1875 reprint 1993– Page 343 Bal means a place, and Ash is the satyr of Kashmir traditions."
^Parvéz Dewân Parvéz Dewân's Jammû, Kashmîr, and Ladâkh: Kashmîr – 2004 Page 175 "Manas means 'mountain' and 'bal' means 'lake' (or even 'place'). Thus, the ..."
^Times of IndiaTomb Raider: Jesus buried in Srinagar? 8 May 2010 "One of the caretakers of the tomb, Mohammad Amin, alleged that they were forced to padlock the shrine ... He believed that the theory that Jesus is buried anywhere on the face of the earth is blasphemous to Islam."