Kashmir Leaders Claim House Arrest on Martyrs’ Day, Call Government Action ‘Undemocratic’
Srinagar, July 13 — Prominent political leaders in Jammu and Kashmir said Sunday they were placed under house arrest to prevent them from paying homage to the 22 Kashmiris killed by the Dogra Army on July 13, 1931 — a day known locally as Martyrs’ Day, reported by The Kashmir Media News.
Former Chief Ministers Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti, along with other senior opposition figures, accused authorities of locking them inside their homes and deploying heavy security near the Martyrs’ Graveyard at Naqshband Sahib in Srinagar. The move, they say, was meant to block access to the site that has, for decades, been a solemn gathering point for Kashmiris to honor the 1931 protesters shot dead by Maharaja Hari Singh’s forces.
“There was no law-and-order concern today — only a fear of remembrance,” Omar Abdullah posted on X, calling the lockdown a “blatantly undemocratic move.” He likened the 1931 killings to the Jallianwala Bagh massacre under British colonial rule, asserting that the victims “gave Kashmiris a voice” and that their memory would not be erased.
Mehbooba Mufti, president of the People’s Democratic Party, posted photos of a locked gate to her residence, lamenting that “our martyrs are remembered as villains, simply because they were Muslim.” She added, “True reconciliation will come when India accepts our martyrs as it does its own.”
She further alleged that several PDP leaders, including Khurshid Allam and Tabassum, were detained en route to the graveyard.
Hurriyat chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, reportedly under house arrest since Friday, said, “We may be put in jails or threatened, but our martyrs live on in our memory.”
Police have not officially confirmed any house arrests, but in a public advisory, the Srinagar administration denied all applications seeking permission to visit Nowhatta on July 13. The site was effectively sealed off.
Once a public holiday in the region, Martyrs’ Day was removed from the official calendar after the revocation of Jammu and Kashmir’s semi-autonomous status in 2019. Since then, tributes at Naqshband Sahib have become increasingly contentious.
Peoples Conference chief Sajad Lone echoed the sense of loss, writing, “I don’t know why the Union government is so afraid of what is sacred to the people of Kashmir.”
