Kashmir Valley shuts down on Martyrs Day

SRINAGAR: Kashmir Valley was shut again on Friday whereas the local police and Central armed forces enforced curfew-like restrictions in parts of summer capital Srinagar to hold back pro-freedom rallies planned by separatists to mark the “Martyrs” Day’.

On July 13, 1931, as many as 22 Kashmiris were killed in firing by autocratic Dogra Maharaja Hari Singh’s army outside Srinagar’s central prison where an in-camera trial of famed Abdul Qadeer Khan, a non-local chef with a British traveller, was being held.

Khan had been charged with sedition and instigating people for violence after he made fiery speeches against the Maharaja’s “oppressive” rule at a Friday congregation and while pointing towards his Palace asked people to raze it “brick by brick.”

July 13 is observed as ‘Martyrs’ Day’ on both sides of the Line of Control (LoC) at official and unofficial levels. Also, July 13 is a public holiday on both sides of the de facto border.

However, the BJP and like-minded parties, having strong base in Jammu, the native place of Dogra Maharajas, consider their rule in undivided Jammu and Kashmir as a ‘golden period’ and also maintain that Maharaja Hari Singh was a genuine ruler of the state.

Panun Kashmir, Kashmir Vahini and some other political groups of displaced Kashmiri Pandits, on the other hand, allege that July 13, 1931 also marks the beginning of “persecution” of the minority Hindus in the Valley by Muslim majority. As in the past, these outfits on Friday held small rallies in winter capital Jammu and elsewhere to mark the occasion in their own fashion.

While the security forces imposed restrictions in central Srinagar, the marketplaces in other parts of the summer capital and the rest of the Valley remained shut and only skeleton transport services were available as vast majority of the people obeyed a call for shutdown.