MIRPUR (AJK): A large number of people paid glowing tributes to the martyrs of Jammu and Kashmir, including 22 sons of the soil who lost their lives on this day in 1931 in front of Central Jail Srinagar.
The day is remembered as the Kashmir Martyrs Day and these martyrs are credited to have laid the foundation of the movement for liberation from the despotic Dogra rule.
Kashmiris all over the world observed the 92nd Kashmir Martyrs Day on Tuesday with the resolve to continue the struggle with full vigour in order to achieve liberation from the tyrannical Indian rule.
Special prayers, meetings and symposiums were held across Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), the strife-torn Indian occupied Kashmir valley and rest of the world to observe the day. It was a public holiday in the AJK.
It was on this day in 1931 when the Dogra troops shot dead 22 Kashmiris in front of the Central Jail Srinagar. This year too, the Kashmir Martyrs Day gave a sense of renewed hope that if India agrees to the ground realities without any reservations and learns a lesson from the historical facts that she (New Delhi) cannot rule the Kashmiris at gun point, it may help bring a lasting peace and prosperity in the region through the early peaceful settlement of the Kashmir issue in line with the aspirations of the people of Kashmir and United Nations resolutions.
Special Kashmir Martyrs Day meetings were held at almost all the districts and tehsil headquarters of AJK, including Mirpur, Muzaffarabad, Kotli, Bagh, Rawalakot, Sudhanoti, Neelam Valley, Haveili, Hattiyan and Bhimbher, and all other small and major towns and cities.
A large number of people from various social, political and religious Kashmiri groups, the civil society members including the business community, lawyers and the media persons participated in the gatherings. Speakers paid rich tributes to the martyrs of 1931 who were gunned down by the Dogra rulers for raising voice for the liberation of their motherland.
Speaking at special prayer meeting in Mirpur on Tuesday morning, Deputy Commissioner Chaudhry Amjad Iqbal and others strongly condemned the persistent reign of state terrorism and violence unleashed by the Indian occupation forces in Srinagar and rest of the valley for the last six years where hundreds of innocent Kashmiris including the young commander of Hisbul Mujahideen Burhan Muzaffar Wani were martyred. They paid glorious tributes to Shaheed Burhan Wani and other Kashmiri martyrs for laying down the supreme sacrifice of their lives for the noble cause of freedom from the forcible Indian bondage.
Historic Significance of the Day:
The Kashmir Martyrs’ Day, or Youme Shuhada-e-Kashmir is observed on July 13 every year not only on both sides of the Line of Control but also all over the world by the Kashmiris to pay homage to 22 Kashmiris who were martyred in 1931 to free Kashmir from the brutalities of despotic Dogra rulers. The tragic day is a milestone in the Kashmiris’ struggle against foreign occupation which still continues against the Indian alien rule.
The history of Dogra rule (1846-1947) in Kashmir is replete with brutal treatment of the Kashmiri Muslims perpetrated by the Dogra forces. Slave labour, heavy taxes, capital punishment for cow slaughter, and living under constant state-terror are order of the day.
On July 13, 1931, thousands of people crowded the Central Jail Srinagar to witness the in-camera trial of Abdul Qadeer. As the time for obligatory prayer approached, a young Kashmiri stood for Azan. Dogra Governor Ray Zada Tartilok Chand ordered soldiers to open fire at him. When he got martyred, another young man took his place and resumed the Azan from the verse it was broken following the martyrdom of first speaker. He was also shot dead. In this way, 22 Kashmiris embraced martyrdom in their efforts to complete the Azan.
The people carried the dead and paraded through the streets of Srinagar, chanting slogans against Dogra brutalities. Complete strike was observed in the city which was followed by a week-long mourning. This tragic incident shook the whole state and the traffic from Srinagar to Rawalpindi and Srinagar to Jammu came to halt from July 13 to 26, 1931. The 22 martyrs were buried in the Martyrs’ Graveyard at Khawaja Bazar, Srinagar.
The atrocities against the Kashmiri Muslims did not stop even after the partition of the sub-continent, and continues till date. The human rights record of Indian government in the occupied Kashmir has been terrible and is characterized by arbitrary arrests, torture, rape and extrajudicial killings.
Since 1989 when the Kashmir freedom movement entered a new phase, the Indian military troops have been using all inhuman tactics of ethnic cleansing to disturb the majority population of the Kashmiris.
Today’s Kashmir presents the worst possible case of state terrorism where the Indian forces threaten to eliminate the entire masses engaged in demanding implementation of the UN resolutions. Various methods of state terrorism such as breaking the legs, burning of a village, custodial killings, etc., are mercilessly used against the innocent Kashmiris who demand their legitimate right of freedom. More than half of a million people of IIOK have been massacred by the Indian military troops and security agencies so far during the last 75 years.
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