BY || NEYAZ ELAHI | KNO
Not speaking of visiting the families of July 13, 1931 martyrs, the politicians part of successive governments in Jammu and Kashmir are not even allowing the heirs of martyrs to visit the Martyrs Grave Yard located at Naqashbandh Sahab here in Srinagar city.
Recalling the days when Jammu and Kashmir was ruled by Prime Minister Bakshi Ghulam Muhammad, senior Congress leader Muhammad Sultan Mandoo says that those days tens of thousands of people from every nook and cranny of Kashmir Valley used to throng Martyrs Grave Yard. “Now everything is gone. It has become a formality now for a handful of politicians to visit the graveyard under tight security while the movement of the common people is curbed. The irony is that even the close relatives of these martyrs are barred from visiting the graveyard,” Mandoo told news agency CNS.
“Prime Minister of Jammu and Kashmir Bakshi Ghulam Muhammad had made it a point to visit the families of these Martyrs. Even he used to provide financial assistance to these families. He always ensured that these families don’t face any problem. Not to speak of the families of these martyrs, the present day politicians even don’t know the names of the people who sacrificed their precious lives on July 13, 1931.”
Mandoo said that last year he was shocked to see some close relatives of these martyrs begging before security personnel seeking permission to visit the graveyard. “I witnessed the grandson of a martyr Ghulam Muhammad Halwai from Jamia Masjid Srinagar pleading before the security men to allow him towards the martyrs yard, but when all his attempts proved futile, the old man returned back with grim face, cursing the rulers and men in uniform.”
“At the extreme end of the historic Jamia Masjid, the grandson and grand-daughter of July 31 martyr Khazar Muhammad were eagerly waiting to cross over the concertina wire, that had been laid to restrict the movement of the people. They were sent back. In the name of Security and Law and Order the rights of people are being trampled.”
“I talked to the family members of one of the July 13 martyrs Naseeruddin Ahmed of Chinkral Mohalla Habba Kadal who cursed the rulers for barring them to visit the graveyard,” Mandoo said.
Muhammd Sultan Mandoo claimed that tomb stones of these martyrs were last painted during Bakshi Government and since then no government bothered to beautify the Martyrs Graveyard.