MIRPUR: People across Azad Jammu and Kashmir and rest of the world observed 86th Kashmir Martyrs Day on Thursday with the renewal of pledge to continue their ongoing struggle for the achievement of their birth right to self-determination.
In Azad Jammu and Kashmir, it was a state holiday to facilitate the people to participate in the events of the day from all over the liberated territory.
Symposia and meetings were the hallmark of the Kashmir Martyrs Day across Azad Jammu & Kashmir as well as at various places in the curfew-claimed Indian occupied Kashmir valley and rest of the world to observe the day.
On July 13, 1931, thousands of people crowded the Central Jail, Srinagar, to witness the in-camera trial of Abdul Qadeer. As the time for obligatory prayer approached, a young Kashmiri stood for Azan.
The Dogra Governor, Ray Zada Tartilok Chand ordered soldiers to open fire at him. When he got martyred, another young man took his place and resumed the Azan from the verse it was broken following the martyrdom of first Kashmiri speaker of the Azan.
He was also shot dead. In this way, 22 Kashmiris embraced martyrdom in their efforts to complete the Azan.
Special meetings held at almost all the district and tehsil head quarters including Mirpur, Muzaffarabad, Kotli, Bagh, Rawalakot, Sudhanoti, Neelam valley, Haveili, Hattiyan and Bhimbher and all other small and major towns and cities.
Addressing these special functions speakers paid rich tributes to the Kashmiris martyrs of 1931 who were gunned down by the then dogra rulers outside the Central Jail Srinagar for raising voice for the liberation of the motherland from the Dogra yoke.
Speakers strongly condemned the renewed state violence unleashed by the Indian occupational forces in Srinagar and rest of the bleeding occupied valley since last one year where hundreds of innocent Kashmiris including the young Commander of Hisb ul Mujahideen Burhan Muzaffar Wani were martyred since July 8 last year for raising voice for the liberation of the motherland from Indian clutches.
They paid tributes to shaheed Burhan and other kashmiri martyrs for laying down the supreme sacrifices of their lives for the noble cause of freedom from the forcible Indian bondages.
