Kashmir Martyrs' Day یومِ شہداءِ کشمیر Youm-e-Shuhada-e-Kashmir | |
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Status | Officially inactive in India since 2019; Pakistan still observes it |
Genre | Remembrance |
Date(s) | 13 July |
Frequency | Annually |
Inaugurated | 13 July 1931 |
Founder | All India Kashmir Committee |
Most recent | December 2019 |
Part of the 1931 Kashmir agitation |
Kashmir Martyrs' Day (Urdu: یومِ شہداءِ کشمیر Transliteration. Youm-e-Shuhada-e-Kashmir[1]) or Kashmir Day,[a] was a former official state holiday observed in Kashmir in remembrance of 21 Muslim protesters killed on 13 July 1931 by Dogra forces of the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir in British India.[3][4]
On that day, Kashmiri Muslims protesting outside the Srinagar Central Jail, where Abdul Qadeer was being held and tried on charges of sedition, were fired upon by state forces after refusing to disperse and instead entering the prison premises.[5][failed verification] The crowds buried the bodies of those killed by the state forces in the graveyard attached to the Shrine of Khwaja Bahawuddin Naqshbandi (Ziyarat Naqshband Sahab) in Srinagar, which has since come to be known as Mazar-e-Shuhada or the Martyrs' Graveyard.[3]
The day was removed as an official holiday of Jammu and Kashmir by the Government of India in December 2019.[6] The Government of Pakistan still marks the day.[1]
On the other hand, Kashmiri Hindus observe the events of July 1931 as the beginning of their oppression, which would reach a peak with the exodus in 1990.[2][7] For Kashmiri Hindu organisations, the ethnic cleansing of Hindus had begun with the arrival of Muslim rule in the region. For them, the real victims are not the Kashmiri Muslims who died on 13 July 1931 but those Kashmiri Hindus who were "victims of communal carnage".[2]
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Mobilisations among Kashmiri Pandits have projected July 13 as a "black day", when arson and killings were allegedly unleashed on the state's minority community.
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