Kashmir marks Martyrs’ Day amid shutdown, house arrests and barred access to Srinagar graveyard

SRINAGAR, Jammu and Kashmir (MNTV) — Kashmiris on both sides of the Line of Control and in communities around the world observed Kashmir Martyrs’ Day on Monday to honour the 22 people shot dead by the Dogra Maharaja’s forces outside Srinagar’s Central Jail on July 13, 1931, along with all those who have since died in the Kashmiri struggle for self-determination.

The commemoration this year unfolded against a backdrop of a complete shutdown in the Kashmir Valley, sealed roads to the historic Martyrs’ Graveyard, and the house arrest of senior political figures — six years after the day was stripped of its status as an official holiday.

Today’s developments

In Indian-administered Kashmir, authorities sealed all routes leading to the graveyard in Srinagar’s old city, where the 1931 dead are buried.

A siege of concertina wire, plastic barricades and metal sheets was laid near Nowhatta to prevent leaders from marching to the site.

Sources said the measure was aimed at preventing a repeat of last year’s scenes, when Chief Minister Omar Abdullah scaled a fence to offer tributes after police locked the gates.

Peoples Democratic Party chief and former Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, along with her daughters Iltija and Irtiqa, was placed under house arrest ahead of the day.

In a post on X, Iltija Mufti said the family had been confined to their residence on the eve of Martyrs’ Day “for reasons best known to JK Police,” questioning the “normalcy” authorities claim to have restored in the region.

Her sister Irtiqa, who says she is not involved in politics, also questioned why she had been prevented from leaving home.

National Conference leader and MLA Hasnain Masoodi said “July 13 lives in our hearts,” insisting no ban could erase the martyrs’ sacrifices and that his party would visit the graveyard.

The Awami Ittehad Party said Baramulla MP Abdul Rashid Sheikh, known as Engineer Rashid and currently held in Tihar Jail, would observe a day-long hunger strike in tribute.

Chief cleric Mirwaiz Umar Farooq had announced he would lead a peaceful procession to the graveyard.

In Pakistan-administered Kashmir, where the day remains a public holiday, special prayers, seminars and rallies were held at district and tehsil headquarters, including Muzaffarabad, Mirpur, Kotli, Bagh, Rawalakot, Bhimber, Haveli, Neelum Valley and Hattian Bala, along with visits to martyrs’ graveyards.

Struck off the holiday list

The removal of July 13 from the official calendar sits at the heart of the current tensions.

From 1931 — formally from 1948 — until 2019, July 13 was recognised as an official public holiday in Jammu and Kashmir.

That changed after New Delhi abrogated the region’s special status under Article 370 in August 2019 and reorganised the former state into two union territories.

In 2020, the Lieutenant Governor’s administration dropped both Martyrs’ Day and the December 5 birth anniversary of National Conference founder Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah from the list of gazetted holidays.

In their place, the administration announced new holidays, including one on September 23 to mark the birthday of the Dogra ruler Maharaja Hari Singh — the very monarch whose forces carried out the 1931 killings.

Kashmiri scholars saw the swap as a deliberate effort to reshape Kashmir’s historical narrative.

The change has drawn sustained criticism from regional parties.

When the 2025 holiday list again omitted both dates, National Conference leaders vowed the holidays “will be restored one day,” while CPI(M) leader and MLA M.Y. Tarigami called the omission “very unfortunate,” arguing that July 13 commemorates those who died protesting autocratic rule and advocating for human dignity.

The National Conference, now in power in the union territory, has continued to demand restoration of the holiday and permission for public observances — demands that remain unmet.

Alongside the delisting, police under the Lieutenant Governor’s administration have for several years barred political leaders from visiting the graveyard on the day, turning access to the site into an annual confrontation.

In 2025, former chief ministers Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti were denied entry, with Omar Abdullah calling the restrictions “blatantly undemocratic” and noting that homes had been “locked from the outside” to stop people reaching a historically important site.

Pakistan’s leadership reaffirms support

President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif issued separate messages paying tribute to the 22 Kashmiris killed in 1931. Shehbaz Sharif said Pakistan reiterates its “unwavering political, diplomatic, and moral support” for the people of Jammu and Kashmir, adding, “We stand in complete solidarity with their just struggle for the realization of their inalienable right to self-determination, as enshrined in the relevant United Nations Security Council resolutions.”

He said lasting peace and stability in South Asia remain contingent on a peaceful resolution of the dispute in line with those resolutions.

President Zardari said more than 900,000 Indian troops continued to hold the Kashmiri people hostage and described India’s actions of August 5, 2019 as an attempt to strip Kashmiris of their identity and reduce them to a minority in their own land.

He specifically noted that India subsequently scrapped the regional public holiday that had marked Martyrs’ Day.

The history: what happened in 1931

Kashmir Martyrs’ Day commemorates the deaths of 22 unarmed people shot outside Srinagar’s Central Jail on July 13, 1931, during protests over the trial of Abdul Qadeer, a figure who had called on Kashmiris to resist the rule of the Dogra Maharaja, Hari Singh.

A large crowd had gathered to witness the in-camera trial. As the time for afternoon prayers approached, a young man reportedly stood to give the call to prayer; when he was shot, another took his place, and the firing by state forces continued until 22 lay dead.

The bodies were carried in a procession and buried in the graveyard attached to the shrine of Khwaja Bahauddin Naqshbandi in Srinagar — a site since known as Mazar-e-Shuhada, the Martyrs’ Graveyard.

At a public meeting there, Sheikh Abdullah, who would become one of Kashmir’s towering political figures, declared that July 13 would henceforth be observed as Martyrs’ Day.

Historians widely regard the killings as a turning point. Writer Jyoti Bhusan Das Gupta noted that “modern Kashmir’s ‘freedom movement’ was born on 13 July 1931,” while Prem Nath Bazaz described it as the most important day in the annals of contemporary Kashmir. Sheikh Abdullah himself compared the incident to the Jallianwala Bagh massacre.

The aftermath prompted Maharaja Hari Singh to appoint the Glancy Commission to examine Muslim grievances, a process that ultimately led to the establishment of a legislative assembly in 1934.

The annual standoff over a graveyard and a holiday has itself become part of the story July 13 now tells.