A day after being allegedly placed under house arrest, Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah and several National Conference leaders defied restrictions on Monday and paid tribute at the graveyard of the 1931 Martyrs in Srinagar.

Abdullah lambasted the Lieutenant Governor and the police for trying to stop him and his entourage from entering the martyrs' graveyard.

"It is sad that on the instructions of the people who claim that their responsibility is the security and law and order, we were not allowed to offer 'fateha' here. We were kept in house arrest (on Sunday). When gates opened, I expressed to the control room my desire to offer fateha. Within minutes, bunkers were put up and they were not removed late into the night," Abdullah told reporters after paying tributes at the graveyard.

Sharing a video posted by a local news outlet, Abdullah wrote on X (formerly Twitter), “Paid my respects & offered Fatiha at the graves of the martyrs of 13th July 1931. The unelected government tried to block my way, forcing me to walk from Nawhatta chowk. They blocked the gate to Naqshband Sb shrine forcing me to scale a wall. They tried to physically grapple me but I was not going to be stopped today.”

This account came just a day after Omar Abdullah accused authorities of locking him and several ministers inside their homes, calling it a “blatantly undemocratic move.”

“In a blatantly undemocratic move homes have been locked from the outside, police & central forces deployed as jailers & major bridges in Srinagar blocked,” Abdullah had said on Sunday.

“All to stop people from visiting a historically important grave yard containing the graves of people who laid down their lives to give Kashmiris a voice & to empower them. I will never understand what the Law & Order government is so afraid of.”

Posting pictures of police vehicles and security personnel outside his house, the National Conference leader had further said, “To borrow from the late Arun Jaitley Sb — Democracy in J&K is a tyranny of the unelected. To put it in terms you will all understand today the unelected nominees of New Delhi locked up the elected representatives of the people of J&K. The unelected government locked up the elected government.”

Abdullah was among several leaders placed under what he described as “house arrest” ahead of July 13, the day observed in memory of the 22 Kashmiris killed by the Dogra army outside Srinagar’s central jail in 1931 while protesting the arrest of Abdul Qadar, a man who had called for rebellion against the Maharaja's rule.

On Sunday, the Srinagar district administration denied permission for any gathering at the Khawaja Bazar, Nowhatta area, the location of the Martyrs' Graveyard citing law and order concerns.

In a public advisory posted on X, Srinagar Police said, “The District Administration Srinagar has denied permission to all applicants intending to proceed towards Khawaja Bazar, Nowhatta on 13th July 2025 (Sunday).”

‘July 13 our Jallianwala Bagh’

Despite the clampdown, Abdullah insisted the memories of the 1931 martyrs would not be erased. “13th July massacre is our Jallianwala Bagh. The people who laid down their lives did so against the British. Kashmir was being ruled under the British Paramountcy,” he said. “What a shame that true heroes who fought against British rule in all its forms are today projected as villains only because they were Muslims. We may be denied the opportunity to visit their graves today but we will not forget their sacrifices.”

On Sunday, Jammu and Kashmir People’s Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti also alleged that her party leaders were prevented from visiting the Martyrs’ Graveyard.

“The day you accept our heroes as your own just as Kashmiris have embraced yours, from Mahatma Gandhi to Bhagat Singh that day, as prime minister Modi once said, the ‘dil ki doori’ (distance of hearts) will truly end,” she wrote on X.

The July 13, 1931 incident had for decades been marked as an official holiday in Jammu and Kashmir until 2020, following the abrogation of Article 370 and the reorganisation of the state into two Union territories. Since then, the administration has dropped the day from the list of gazetted holidays.