Srinagar: Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, National Conference president Farooq Abdullah, and People’s Conference president Sajad Gani Lone paid tributes to those who laid down their lives protesting against the rule of Dogra Maharaja Hari Singh in 1931.
According to a party spokesperson, the leaders describe the sacrifice of the ‘martyrs’ as a defining chapter in Jammu and Kashmir’s struggle for justice, dignity, and democratic rights.
“July 13 remains a historic watershed that ignited a mass movement against autocracy, oppression and injustice in the erstwhile princely state,” the spokesperson said.
Speaking on the occasion, Lone launched a scathing attack on the present dispensation, accusing it of relegating history to irrelevance while substituting governance with political spectacle.
“This government has made no sincere effort to restore this public holiday, honouring the sacrifice of our native heroes. It has chosen theatre over truth, rhetoric over resolve, and in doing so, has turned its back on history itself,” he said.
Lone asserted that collective memory cannot be extinguished through executive decrees. “No government order can erase what a people choose to remember,” he remarked, adding that the restoration of July 13 as a public holiday is not a concession but a long overdue obligation rooted in historical justice.
Restoring the day as a public holiday, he said, would transcend symbolism. “It would constitute an act of moral and historical restitution, restoring to those who laid down their lives the honour they rightfully deserve and reaffirming Jammu and Kashmir’s commitment to an honest remembrance of its past,” he concluded.
