Srinagar: For the third time, PDP’s alliance partner BJP skipped the official function that pays homage to the 22 Kashmiris at Martyr’s graveyard who were killed by the forces of Dogra Maharaja on this day in 1931.
The martyrs’ day function in Kashmir valley is being observed every year by both the government and the separatist, with the government having declared it an official holiday.
All governments and chief ministers since decades have been paying homage to the martyrs by taking ministerial and official entourage along to pay tributes and lay floral wraths at their graves at in Khawaja Naqashband Shire in Khawaja Bazar area of the old city.
However, from the last three years the BJP has been deliberately skipping the function, with only chief minister and her party leaders visiting the graveyard.
The BJP does not consider the Kashmiri civilians killed by Dogra forces as martyrs, but “the persons who broke law and the state forces did what was required to do under the law.” Instead the PDP’s alliance partner observes the anniversaries of its ideological founders like Syama Prasad Mookerjee and others.
No leader in the BJP responded to the phone calls from KNS despite repeated attempts.
Last year, PDP, embarrassed by the BJP Ministers skipping the function, called the action “inappropriate.”
“To attend the official function to pay respects to the martyrs was an obligation that the Ministers ought to have fulfilled and any deviation from such a precedent was inappropriate,” PDP spokesperson Mehboob Beg said.
Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti today on visiting the graveyard said that the people in the state should “remembers the sacrifices of the martyrs who laid down their lives for democratic rule and prosperous Jammu and Kashmir with Kashmiriyat its fundamental principle”.
Opposition National Conference president and MP Farooq Abdullah lashed out at BJP for skipping the function.
“It is obvious, they (BJP) have nothing to do with this. They are only here to stay in power and loot the public of Jammu and Kashmir,” Abdullah told reporters after tributes to the martyrs.
He added that July 13, 1931 was a watershed moment in the history of Kashmir and marked the beginning of a struggle against tyranny, oppression and despotism. (KNS)
