Kashmiri Pandit groups hold 'Black Day' protests

JAMMU: The occasion of Martyrs' Day in Jammu and Kashmir today saw protests by Kashmiri Pandit groups who observed the day as a black day saying that it commemorated the persecution inflicted by one group of people on another.

The Joint Forum of KP Organisations held a massive demonstration outside the Press Club here. Activists at the demonstration said that the Kashmiri Pandit community had been observing July 13 as 'Black Day' since 1932.

The organisations which took part in the protests include the All State Kashmir Pandit Conference, Panun Kashmir, All India Kashmiri Pandit Conference, BJP, VHP, Jammu State Morcha, Sanatan Dharm Sabha and Shiv Sena.

All India general secretary of the BJP, P Muralidhar Rao, who was on a day's visit to J-K also joined the demonstrators.

People demonstrating against Maharaja Hari Singh's rule in Kashmir were shot and killed by soldiers on July 13, 1931.

Although the day is celebrated as Martyrs' Day in the state, a section of public opinion says that one of the events in the historic episode was of an attack carried out by members of one community against another.

"It adds insult to injury that a day when Kashmiri Pandits were subjected to mass persecution and loot has been designated as the official Martyrs' Day in the Valley," said Panun Kashmir president Ashwani Kumar Chrungoo.