Don't declare July 13 as Martyrs' Day, Panun Kashmir asks govt

Panun Kashmir, an organisation for displaced Kashmiri Pandits, today appealed the J&K government to stop observing July 13 as Martyrs' Day, owing to the humiliation subjected to the community on this day in 1931.
"Various political parties in the Valley observe July 13 as Martyrs' Day and every year it is observed as a holiday in the state. But this day amounts to rubbing of salt on the wounds of the minority communities of the state", Ashwani Kumar Chrungoo, President, Panun Kashmir said.
He said that it was a travesty of justice with those people who were subjected to untold miseries and brutalities on this particular day in 1931 in the Kashmir valley.

"The minority Hindu community in Kashmir was subjected to loot, arson, murder and mayhem on a large scale in the valley on this day," he said.
Chrungoo urged the state government to respect the sentiments of the minority community and stop observing the day as a holiday.
People demonstrating against Maharaja Hari Singh's rule in Kashmir were shot and killed by soldiers on July 13, 1931.
Although the day is celebrated as Martyrs' Day in the state, a section of public opinion says that one of the events in the historic episode was of an attack carried out by members of one community against another.