MLAs, Kashmiri leaders ‘locked’ inside homes to prevent them from attending Martyrs’ Day function in Srinagar
Srinagar: Kashmiri politicians and leaders have said that they have been locked inside their homes to prevent them from attending the July 13 Martyrs’ Day function in Srinagar, Indian occupied Jammu and Kashmir.
According to Kashmir Media Service, Tanveer Sadiq, an NC MLA representing the Zadibal assembly seat of Srinagar, wrote in a post on X, “Since last night, I, like many of my colleagues, including the party leadership at Gupkar in Srinagar, the advisor to the chief minister, and a majority of sitting MLAs, have been locked inside my home.”
“This is not just unfortunate; it is a deliberate attempt to suppress remembrance and deny us the right to honor the martyrs of July 13. Such actions are not only unnecessary, they are unjustified, deeply insensitive, and reveal a troubling disregard for history,” he said.
Chief Minister Omar Abdullah called the move blatantly undemocratic. “All to stop people from visiting a historically important graveyard containing the graves of people who laid down their lives to give Kashmiris a voice and empower them. I will never understand what the law-and-order government is so afraid of,” he said in a post.
Former Chief Minister and PDP leader Mehbooba Mufti said: “When you lay siege to the Martyrs’ Graveyard, lock people in their homes to prevent them from visiting Mazar-e-Shuhada, it speaks volumes. July 13 commemorates our martyrs—those who rose against tyranny, much like countless others across the country. They will always be our heroes.”
Earlier, Lt Governor Manoj Sinha’s administration in the territory denied permission to all political parties, including the National Conference, to attend the July 13 Martyrs’ Day function in Srinagar.
July 13 is observed as Martyrs’ Day to commemorate the sacrifice of 22 people who led an uprising against the autocratic rule of Maharaja Hari Singh in 1931, which eventually forced the Maharaja to hold the first assembly elections in the history of Jammu and Kashmir.
The day was a public holiday in the erstwhile state until 2019, when Article 370, granting special status to Jammu and Kashmir, was abrogated. Since 2020, July 13 has been dropped from the official calendar of public holidays.
Since then, the Delhi-controlled administration has disallowed any function at the Martyrs’ Graveyard and even put Kashmiri leaders, including former chief ministers, under house arrest to prevent them from visiting the site in Srinagar.
