Muzaffarabad, (Parliament Times) : Prime Minister Chaudhry Anwar Haq has said that July 13 was an important milestone and a glorious chapter in the history of the Kashmir freedom movement.
In his message issued on the occasion of the Kashmir martyrs day, the PM said that on this fateful day in 1931, 22 Kashmiri Muslims were martyred by the Dogra forces in the premises of the central jail in Srinagar.
Paying rich tributes to Kashmiri martyrs, the PM said that 13th July incident was a unique incident in the entire Islamic History wherein 22 Kashmiris one after the other offered their lives to accomplish Azan (the call to prayer). He said that the unprecedented aspect of this incident was that all the martyrs bore bullet marks on their chests and none of them was shot in the back.
Referring to the Maharaja’s repressive and anti-Muslim policies, he said that in the early 1930s the tyranny of the Dogra Maharaja in Kashmir had touched to its peak. “Muslims were being treated as worthless creatures, whereas, desecration of Mosques and Holy Quran, had become a new normal”, he said, adding that on the one hand a cruel tax regime was imposed by the government while on the other Kashmiris especially the Muslims were banned from holding land.
” No one was allowed to raise his voice against the oppression and cruelty of despotic rulers”, he said.
Referring to Abdul Qadeer Khan’s role in the struggle that shook the foundations of the Maharaja, the PM said that on June 25, Abdul Qadeer Khan delivered a historic speech during a meeting of the Young Muslim Association at Khanqah Moala in Srinagar and asked Kashmiris to stand up and raise their revolt against the brutality of the Maharaja.
The PM said that Abdul Qadeer was arrested on the same day but his arrest and subsequent trial triggered a massive revolution against the Dogra regime in the Kashmir region.
He said that protests against the terror of the Dogra army continued and the brave Kashmiris faced bayonets and bullets bare-chested with great courage.
The PM said that the valiant people of Kashmir have scripted a new history of resistance, be it their struggle against the despotic Maharaja or against India’s illegal occupation.