Kashmir remembers 1931 martyrs with shutdown

Kashmiris remembered the martyrs of 1931 who fought against an autocratic rule, with a shutdown on Friday.

Authorities made heavy security arrangements around the Martyrs graveyard in Naqashband Sahab area of the old city here where the people who fought the Dogra rule and were killed by the state forces on July 13, 1931, were buried.

Protesters had stormed the Srinagar Central Jail on that day, as the trial of Abdul Qadeer was being held in camera.

Qadeer was the Pathan butler of a British officer who made a fiery speech after seeing the atrocities being committed on Kashmiris by the forces of the Dogra Maharaja.

July 13 is a public holiday in Jammu and Kashmir. All shops and businesses remained closed, while public transport buses were off the roads in the valley.

Separatists gave the shutdown call following which authorities placed Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Mirwaiz Umer Farooq under house arrest while Yasin Malik was put under detention.

--IANS

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