Terming the demand of the people of south Kashmir’s Pulwama district that a ‘Martyrs Memorial’ construction be allowed, an All Parties Hurriyat Conference (m) spokesperson Wednesday said the demand to “pay tributes to the martyrs who had rendered selfless sacrifices by offering their lives for the resolution of Kashmir issue was just and denying the right to raise their memorial was completely against the democratic norms”.
Condemning the restrictions placed by the authorities on erecting a ‘Martyrs Memorial’ at Pulwama, Hurriyat Conference (m) spokesperson said the government in 2007 had similarly aborted the conglomerate’s programme of raising a “Martyrs Memorial Wall” at Martyrs Graveyard in Eidgah Srinagar by the use of force and coercive measures.Stressing that it was “height of repression” that people were not being allowed to build “memorials of the martyrs”, the spokesperson said, “since 2007 when APHC-m announced the programme for raising a Martyrs Memorial Wall, the government not only disallowed it but since then did not allow to hold the annual rally of 21st May at Eidgah in order to pay tributes to the martyrs which clearly exhibits the oppressive and suppressive tactics of the government to crush the popular resistance movement of Kashmiris.”
Referring to the “sacrifices of the martyrs as the real treasure and asset of the on-going resistance movement”, the spokesperson said, “the value of the supreme sacrifices offered by the martyrs could not be measured by memorials only but these memorials definitely refresh the sacrifices in the minds of the people.” “Memorials or no memorials the martyrs live in the hearts of the people of Kashmir and by stopping people from building their Memorials was not going to stop the people from carrying forward the mission of these martyrs and from taking it to its logical conclusion.”
The spokesperson said that APHC-m would continue to “lead the on-going resistance movement until the mission of these martyrs is accomplished”. “Carrying the movement forward with steadfastness and with the resolve is the moral and collective responsibility of the leadership and the people.”Hurriyat Conference (m) called for the immediate release of youth arrested in Pulwama for demanding construction of a ‘Martyrs Memorial’, and condemned the use of force and atrocities on unarmed civilians.