Intro: July 13 is being observed by the Kashmiri Pandits as the Black Day since 1932 in commemoration of the persecution that was inflicted upon the society in the Valley of Kashmir.
At one side separatists called for a strike in Kashmir Valley to observe July 13 as Martyr’s day, Kashmiri Pandits all over the state and outside observed July 13 as black day and described the day as a day of loot and plunder.
July 13 in 1931 was the beginning of the first organised genocide of Kashmiri Pandits in Kashmir by the then Muslim Conference of Kashmir. It has been a shocking experience of innocent Kashmiri Pandit community who were made the targets of wide spread communal violence and frenzy as ramification of police firing on the riot-mongering mob incited by Abdul Qadeer, a resident of Peshawar and a stooge of British conspirators. Abdul Qadir who had given inflammatory lectures denounces the Maharaja Hari Singh and Hindus of the state. The mobs under the supervision and leadership of communal forces looted Hindu properties and houses at Vicharnag, Maharaj Ganj Amirakadal, Bohrikadal and kanikoot. In valley, Hindus were mercilessly beaten, arsoned, murdered, looted and families having been brutally killed on a large scale in the valley
| July 13 was only a National Conference event but it was the so called secular Congress Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad who visited their grave yard as Chief minister to give the event a government legitimacy. —Bhushan Lal Bhat, President JKVM |
From then Kashmiri Pandits observe it as black day. The question is that how could looters turn martyrs while in actually the poor Hindus who were butchered in valley were the real martyrs. Those who today are glorifying looters of 1931 as martyrs are today vehemently opposing the return of Pandits to the valley.
The government of Kashmir should not proclaim July 13 as a holiday and instead stop calling it a martyr’s day. It is totally unconstitutional. In this connection Jammu Kashmir Vichar Manch (JKVM) organised a mammoth meeting at Sanjeevni Sharda Bhawan in which the participants recalled the ghastly events that took place on July 13, 1931 in Srinagar.
The subsequent killing and looting property of Hindus in the valley kick started a secessionist and separatist mindset due to which Kashmiri Pandits had to bear a continuous onslaught and finally in 1990 were thrown out of the valley said Shri Pradeep Kaul, a well known social activist.National General Secretary JKVM Shri Hira Lal Bhat called upon the community to understand the devastating contours of the events of 1931 in which a majoritarian and Islamist program was thrust upon the hapless minorities of Kashmir with the result today they are languishing in a long exile.
A unanimous resolution was passed in the meeting asking the state government to withdraw holiday on July 13 terming it unconstitutional and against natural justice. Noted social activists like Upender Amberdar and Dr Ramesh Bhat, BR Pandita, a renowned thinker, Advocate kashmiri Lal Bhat, Radha Krishen Koul, H L Jad and many more dignitaries were present in the meeting.
Bharatiya Janata Party, National People’s Party and others organisations like Panun Kashmir, Kashmiri Vahini also opposed observance of July 13 as martyrs day.
—Bureau Report
