JRL calls for complete shutdown in IHK tomorrow

ISLAMABAD: The Joint Resistance Leadership (JRL) has called for a complete shutdown on Saturday (tomorrow) in the disputed territory on the occasion of Kashmir Martyrs’ Day, to reiterate the urgent need for a peaceful and just resolution of the Kashmir dispute and to put an end to repression.

In a statement issued in held Srinagar on Thursday, the JRL also called for a march towards the martyrs’ graveyard at Srinagar where the martyrs of 1931 are buried, Kashmir Media Service reported.

On the 13th of July 1931, the troops of Dogra Maharaja had killed 22 Kashmiris, one after the other, outside Central Jail in Srinagar during the court proceedings against one Abdul Qadeer who had asked Kashmiri people to defy the Dogra rule.

Thousands of people had gathered outside the court to show their solidarity with Abdul Qadeer. As the time for prayers approached, one of the youths stood up and started reciting the Adhan (call to prayer). He was shot dead by the Dogra soldiers and the next youth started the Adhan where it was left by the martyred youth.

He was also killed and in the process of completing the Adhan a total of 22 Kashmiris were martyred, one after the other. Scores of other people were injured after the troops opened fire to disperse the protesters. This massacre is the darkest chapter in the history of Dogra regime.

Hurriyat Forum Chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq paid tribute to the martyrs of July 13 and said the uprising of 1931 was the first strong and collective voice of the people of Jammu and Kashmir against the century-old oppressive autocratic rule and those killed were among the first martyrs of Kashmir.

He said the Kashmiris’ struggle for securing their right to self-determination continues since then in which hundreds of thousands of people have rendered their lives. He said the Kashmiri people want a peaceful resolution of the Kashmir dispute and an end to human rights violations by Indian troops in the occupied territory.

APHC Chairman Syed Ali Geelani said the Indian rulers have very brazenly crossed all moral, ethical and human limits to take revenge from the Kashmiri people in general, and Hurriyat leaders and activists in particular.

The same day, Indian troops launched a cordon and search operation in north Kashmir’s Baramulla district. The troops cordoned off the Kanispora area of the district and began searches. The operation was ongoing as the last reports came in. The operations usually end with violence.

Geelani expressed serious concern over the deteriorating health of jailed Hurriyat leader Ayaz Akbar, extension in the remand of the JKLF Chairman Yasin Malik, attaching of the residence of jailed female leader Aasiya Andrabi and repeated questioning of his own grandson, Anees-ul-Islam, by the NIA.