(Top) Security personnel shield Omar Abdullah as protesters target him; a National Conference supporter lobs a stone at policemen in Srinagar on Sunday. (PTI, AP)

Srinagar, July 13: Separatist-led mobs threw stones at leading politicians Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti today at a programme to remember 23 people killed during an uprising against the Dogra rulers in 1931.

Mehbooba, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) chief, who had come with flowers, left her shoes behind as she fled the martyrs’ graveyard in Srinagar’s Khawaja Bazar locality.

National Conference (NC) president Omar addressed a crowd ringed by a wall of security, but as he left the venue, his motorcade came under a barrage of stones at the Khanyar locality. Several of the cars were damaged.

The police fired in the air and lobbed tear gas shells as the rain of stones continued in and around the venue, leaving several NC supporters and the separatist-led protesters injured. Policemen dragged several NC men out and beat them.

July 13 is an official holiday in the state. It is observed as “martyrs’ day” in memory of those who fell to police firing 77 years ago outside the Srinagar central jail, where their leader Abdul Qadeer was being tried.

Both separatist and mainstream politicians hold rallies at the graveyard, although the police have used force in the past to keep the separatists from reaching the venue. This time, buoyed by the success of the recent Amarnath land agitation, the separatists succeeded in stealing the show.

Life was paralysed across Kashmir in response to a strike call from the separatists, who led a march of thousands to the graveyard.

Mehbooba and her colleagues were bombarded with missiles by dozens of youths who pushed back a heavy police contingent. The stone-throwing resumed when a few hundred NC activists arrived sometime later, leading to clashes.

The protesting youths raised pro-freedom slogans and set fire to the NC flag. Some masked men unfurled the flags of militant outfit al Umar Mujahideen. Heavy security allowed Omar to finish his speech.

In the afternoon, several thousand joined a Hurriyat rally, preceded by a march from the Jamia mosque to the graveyard. Hurriyat moderate Mirwaiz Umer Farooq addressed the gathering.

Earlier, Omar accused the separatists of doublespeak, alleging: “They say one thing in Pakistan, another in Delhi and something else in Kashmir.”

He said that when his grandfather, Sheikh Abdullah, was leading a “plebiscite movement in Kashmir”, Hurriyat hardliner Syed Ali Shah Geelani was fighting elections.

“It was L.K. Advani who arranged Rs 70 lakh for Geelani’s treatment in New Delhi,” Omar claimed.

Omar also tore into the PDP, saying it had conspired with the BJP to topple Ghulam Nabi Azad’s Congress-led government.

He claimed that two PDP ministers, Muzaffar Hussain Baig and Qazi Afzal, had signed the Amarnath land deal months before their party pulled out of the government in protest against the allotment. He alleged that Baig was “dishonest” and Qazi a “thief”.

“It was Mufti Muhammad Sayeed who facilitated the appointment of S.K. Sinha (seen as the architect of the land deal) as governor when he was chief minister,” Omar said.