Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti on Thursday called for a collective fight against “those few people” who have “made Kashmir hostage and infused fear in public.”
“This will be the real tribute to the (July 13, 1931) martyrs. Some people have made situation in Kashmir hostage to their designs. We all need to fight them to make J&K a prosperous state for which these martyrs laid down their lives,” she told media-persons after paying floral tributes to July 13, 1931 martyrs at the martyrs’ graveyard here.
“They laid down their lives against autocracy and suppression. These sacrifices led to the dawn of freedom in the state which saw the evolution of a democratic and egalitarian system,” Mehbooba said.
Police had imposed curfew-like restrictions on movement of people in Downtown Srinagar to ensure smooth conduct of the official function at the martyrs’ graveyard.
The martyrs’ day is observed every year to pay homage to 22 people killed in firing by soldiers of Dogra ruler Maharaja Hari Singh at Srinagar’s Central Jail on July 13, 1931 when Kashmir had risen against the autocratic rule.
While the Chief Minister was joined by her party leaders and ministers including Syed Altaf Bukhari, Abdur Rehman Veeri and Abdul Haq Khan and officials from state administration and police, her ally BJP skipped the function for the third consecutive year after coming to power in the state. The BJP has maintained that it neither considers 22 persons killed in 1931 as martyrs nor acknowledges the day as the martyrs’ day.
Though Mehbooba choose not to speak on the BJP giving a miss to the official function, she however said the martyrs of 1931 sacrificed their lives to lay foundation for democratic rule in J&K. “We all should remember their sacrifices,” she said.
Mehbooba said the best way to remember these sacrifices was that people must work together in “strengthening the democratic and tolerant system.” She hoped the “clouds of uncertainty and violence” would soon give way to reconciliation, peace and mutual trust.
