Indian Illegal Occupied Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said that he has been “locked up” inside his house soon after he returned from Delhi this evening.
The Chief Minister termed his house “detention” as the tyranny of the unelected in Jammu and Kashmir. He shared multiple pictures on X of a large contingent of police outside his home and an armoured vehicle parked outside the main gate.
Democracy in J&K is a tyranny of the unelected. To put it in terms you will all understand today, the unelected nominees of New Delhi locked up the elected representatives of the people of J&K,” Abdullah said in a post on X.
Without naming the Lt Governor’s administration, Abdullah, in another post, said that “The unelected government locked up the elected government”
Earlier today, several ministers in the Omar Abdullah government, MLAs and top leaders of the ruling party and the Opposition were put under house arrest or detained to prevent them from observing Kashmir Martyrs’ Day.
The administration of the Lieutenant Governor has denied permission for the ‘Martyrs Day’ function to pay homage to those who were killed in the fight against the autocratic regime of Maharaja Hari Singh under British suzerainty.
IIOJK administration imposed restrictions in several parts of Srinagar and warned of strict action against anyone who tried to proceed towards the Martyrs’ Graveyard.
Today, senior leaders, including former Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah, woke up to house detention and restrictions imposed in parts of Srinagar.
Omar Abdullah strongly condemned the restrictions and house arrests and equated the 1931 martyrs of Kashmir with those of “Jallianwala Bagh”
“13th July massacre is our Jallianwala Bagh. The people who laid down their lives did so against the British. Kashmir was being ruled under the British Paramountcy. What a shame that true heroes who fought against British rule in all its forms are today projected as villains only because they were Muslims. We may be denied the opportunity to visit their graves today, but we will not forget their sacrifices,” Omer Abdullah said in a post on X.
PDP leader and former Chief Minister, Mehbooba Mufti, said in a post X, “The day you accept our heroes as your own just as Kashmiris have embraced yours, from Mahatma Gandhi to Bhagat Singh that day, as Prime Minister Modi once said, the “dil ki doori” (distance of hearts) will truly end.”
“When you lay siege to the Martyrs’ Graveyard, lock people in their homes to prevent them from visiting Mazar-e-Shuhada, it speaks volumes. July 13th commemorates our martyrs, those who rose against tyranny, much like countless others across the country. They will always be our heroes,” she added.
Sajad Lone, MLA and chief of Jammu and Kashmir People’s Conference, said he had been put under house arrest. “I don’t know why the union government is so keen to redefine what is sacred for the people of Kashmir. The sacrifices rendered on July 13 are sacred for all of us,” he said on X, adding, “Histories that are etched in blood don’t vanish”.
Earlier, the National Conference wrote to the Lieutenant Governor, urging him to restore the public holiday on July 13 in memory of those killed in 1931. But this request was turned down, and the district magistrate denied permission to hold any event.
