Mehbooba asks PDP MLAs to ensure resolution seeking holiday for ‘July 13 Martyrs’
Jammu: The Peoples Democratic Party President, Mehbooba Mufti, has asked the party’s three legislators to ensure that a resolution seeking a holiday in memory of the July 13 martyrs is the first to be passed during the budget session of the occupied Jammu and Kashmir Assembly.
According to Kashmir Media Service, July 13 was observed as a public holiday in occupied Jammu and Kashmir to commemorate the 22 men who fell to the bullets of the Dogra maharaja’s soldiers outside Srinagar central jail in 1931. The holiday was, however, scrapped by the lieutenant governor-led administration following the 2019 abrogation of Article 370 and the reorganisation of the erstwhile state into two Union Territories.
Mehbooba asked her party’s legislators to garner support for the resolution to push for a holiday in memory of the July 13 martyrs during the session, scheduled to begin on Monday.
However, it was not immediately clear if any PDP MLA had moved a resolution to the Assembly Secretariat, seeking declaration of July 13 as an official holiday to remember the sacrifices of the protestors. The PDP wants the House to remember July 13 as the beginning of the political awakening of the people of Jammu and Kashmir for democratic rights, the sources said.
A PDP leader said, “These martyrs are remembered for their resistance against colonial and autocratic rule, symbolising the Kashmiris’ long-standing struggle for democracy and constitutional rights.”
