Overview

• Srinagar district administration banned all pilgrimages on July 13, placing leaders under house arrest and locking their homes to block access.
• Security forces sealed roads and barricaded the Naqshband Sahib Martyrs’ Graveyard in Nowhatta to enforce the prohibition.
• On July 14, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah scaled the graveyard wall and led his National Conference colleagues in laying floral tributes.
• Abdullah condemned the detentions as “blatantly undemocratic” and likened the 1931 shootings to the Jallianwala Bagh massacre.
• The ban and removal of Martyrs’ Day as a public holiday since 2020 highlight the ongoing struggle between Jammu and Kashmir’s elected leaders and the central administration over the region’s historical memory.