IN PHOTOS: Martyr's day in Kashmir amid tension

Restrictions were imposed in old city areas of Jammu and Kashmir's summer capital Srinagar on Wednesday to foil separatist marches to the graveyard of martyrs who laid down their lives protesting the autocratic rule of the Dogras in 1931.

The call for Wednesday's marches to the martyr's graveyard in old city has been issued by moderate and the hard-line groups of the separatist conglomerate All Parties Hurriyat Conference.

...

Early on Wednesday morning, authorities moved heavy police and paramilitary, Central Reserve Police Force reinforcements in areas falling under five police stations of the old city to enforce strict restrictions.

It was on this day in 1931 that 22 Kashmiris were killed in an uprising against the autocratic rule of the then Dogra Maharaja.

The Martyr's Day is being observed in Kashmir across the political divide of mainstream and separatist politics.

Security was tight around the martyr's graveyard where the Chief Minister Omar Abdullah arrived early on Wednesday morning to offer floral tributes at the graves of those killed in the Dogra soldiers firing outside the Srinagar central Jail in 1931.

In a message, the chief minister said that 'the sacrifice of the martyrs to free the society from autocracy and lay edifice for democracy and human dignity is one of the richest chapters of the history of Jammu and Kashmir.'

Opposition Peoples Democratic Party patron Mufti Mohammad Sayeed also visited the graveyard to offer tributes.

Authorities have placed almost all the senior separatist leaders including moderate APHC chairman Mirwaiz Moulvi Umar Farooq and hard-line Syed Ali Shah Geelani under house arrest.