J&K CM Omar Abdullah Accuses Police of ‘Grappling' While Entering Martyrs Graveyard, Releases Video
An image on social media showed Abdullah accompanied by his father and the National Conference (NC) president Farooq Abdullah, J&K's deputy chief minister Surinder Choudhary and other NC leaders gathered around the graves of 22 civilians who were shot dead by the Dogra monarch Maharaja Hari Singh's army on July 13, 1931.
A senior NC leader told The Wire that in order to evade police scrutiny, senior Abdullah boarded an auto-rickshaw from Khanyar locality of Srinagar to reach the Sufi shrine of Khwaja Bahauddin Naqshbandi located in downtown Srinagar which is home to the Martyrs Graveyard.
'The plan was kept under tight wraps which took many of us by surprise,' the NC leader said, wishing to remain anonymous.
Another party leader and J&K minister Sakina Itoo availed a bike ride to reach the venue on Monday where the fatiha prayers were offered for the deceased.
The development took place a day after the lieutenant governor administration barred the NC and other Kashmir-based political parties from visiting the graveyard on Sunday to commemorate Martyrs Day, with J&K police warning of legal action against offenders.
However, on Monday, chief minister Abdullah, who was on an official visit to West Bengal, was seen on the road outside the main complex of the shrine, which was turned into a security fortress by the administration ahead of the planned commemorations.
A 59-second video shared by the party with the media showed the chief minister, surrounded by security personnel and three party legislators, pacing towards the shrine while some pedestrians look on and a few commuters halt their vehicles to see the action.
Another video shared on social media showed Abdullah and at least three of his personal security officers clambering over the wall of the shrine complex with no visible resistance from the security personnel deployed there.
Deputy chief minister Choudhary can also be seen watching the action in the video while some central paramilitary troopers, who were deployed at the shrine along with police personnel since Saturday to prevent such intrusions, look on in confusion.
A five-second video posted by Abdullah on X, showed two J&K policemen in action in the shrine compound preventing him from moving towards the graveyard which is located behind the main shrine by grabbing his arms.
The video shows one of Abdullah's personal security officers purportedly managing to loosen the grip of one of the cops, allowing the chief minister to release his arm while the second cop comes around to stop him from moving ahead.
'This is the physical grappling I was subjected to but I am made of sterner stuff & was not to be stopped. I was doing nothing unlawful or illegal. In fact these 'protectors of the law' need to explain under what law they were trying to stop us from offering Fatiha,' Abdullah said in the post.
After Abdullah managed to make his way towards the graveyard along with three party legislators - Tanvir Sadiq, Ahsan Pardesi and Mushtaq Guroo, sources said senior Abdullah also reached the shrine complex and walked in to join the fateha prayers.
The Union territory administration, which is directly run by the Bhartiya Janta Party-led Union government, foiled the plans of NC and other Kashmir-based political parties to commemorate the Martyrs Day.
Authorities had sealed the historic shrine on Saturday while the applications of political parties to commemorate the day by paying tributes at the graveyard on Sunday were turned down.
The BJP had opposed the July 13 commemoration. Senior leader and leader of opposition in J&K, assembly, Sunil Sharma triggered outrage across Kashmir last year after terming those killed by the Dogra army in 1931 as 'traitors'.
The ruling party has also come under fire from the opposition over its alleged failure to restore July 13 as a public holiday after Abdullah was sworn into office last year. Restoring the July 13 holiday was part of the NC's election manifesto for the 2024 assembly election.
The NC has reportedly written to lieutenant governor Manoj Sinha to reinstate July 13 and December 5, the birth anniversary of the party founder Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah, as public holidays, as it was.
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