‘Blatantly undemocratic’, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah slams house arrests

Srinagar: Prominent leaders, including from ruling and Opposition parties, were placed under “house arrest” in Srinagar on Sunday to prevent them from visiting the martyrs’ graveyard to pay tributes to the 22 people killed by the Dogra army in 1931, a move termed by Chief Minister Omar Abdullah as “blatantly undemocratic”.

The detentions, which were not officially confirmed by police or the administration, were widely reported by leaders who posted videos and pictures showing their gates locked or blocked by security personnel to stop them from going to the Naqshband Sahib Martyrs graveyard near Nowhatta in the old city.

The Srinagar district administration had denied permission to all applicants, including the ruling National Conference leaders, to visit the graveyard. All roads leading to the area located in downtown were barricaded with a heavy presence of police personnel on Sunday.

In a post on X, the Jammu and Kashmir chief minister likened the July 13, 1931 incident to the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, saying, “the people who laid down their lives did so against the British... What a shame that true heroes

who fought against British rule... are today projected as villains.”

Abdullah criticised the house detentions, and said “in a blatantly undemocratic move, homes have been locked from the outside, police and central forces deployed as jailers... All to stop people from visiting a historically important graveyard.”

The National Conference leader said, “We may be denied the opportunity to visit their graves today, but we will not forget their sacrifices”.

Senior National Conference leader and advisor to the chief minister, Nasir Wani, termed the detentions as a “misuse” of power, specifically highlighting what he called a conflict between the “nominated system” of the Central administration and the “elected government”.

This sentiment was echoed by others who saw the move as an attempt to undermine the authority of the newly elected government.

Srinagar Police had issued a public advisory and posted on its handle on X on Saturday that the “District Administration Srinagar has denied permission to all applicants intending to proceed towards Khawaja Bazar, Nowhatta on 13th July 2025 (Sunday)”.

The district magistrate had also rejected the ruling National Conference’s plea seeking permission for National Conference president Farooq Abdullah and other senior functionaries to visit the graveyard.

PDP President Mehbooba Mufti posted pictures of her main door locked and said, “When you lay siege to the Martyrs’ Graveyard, lock people in their homes... it speaks volumes.”

She argued that a genuine end to mistrust between Delhi and Kashmir would only happen when India accepts Kashmiri “martyrs” as their own.

“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,” she said in a post on X.

Deputy Chief Minister Surinder Chaudhary, who was in Jammu, said that his official residence in Kashmir was also locked by the administration.

“This is our condition. Locking a deputy chief minister, ministers and MLAs is a threat to democracy,” he said.

“The nation that forgets its martyrs does not last long. Those who laid down their lives in 1931 were unarmed civilians fighting for their rights. They were not driven by religion or fighting against any community,” the deputy chief minister told reporters at the ruling National Conference headquarters.

July 13 used to be a public holiday in Jammu and Kashmir before the reorganisation of the erstwhile state into two Union territories in August 2019. The administration dropped the day from the list of gazetted holidays in 2020.

On the day, mainstream political leaders used to visit the “martyrs’ graveyard” to pay homage to the Kashmiris who fell to the bullets of the forces during a protest against the then Dogra ruler, Maharaja Hari Singh, in 1931.

Leader of Opposition in J-K Assembly Sunil Sharma dubbed the slain protesters as “traitors” and said the ruling party is trying to indulge in “provocative politics” and revive a separatist sentiment which was long buried following abrogation of Article 370 in 2019.