Kashmir Martyrs Day.

Prime Minister Imran Khan on Monday paid tribute to Kashmiris on Youm-e-Shuhada-e-Kashmir (Kashmir Martyrs Day) for his or her "valiant fight and defiance against a Hindutva supremacist regime".

In a tweet, the premier mentioned the 22 Kashmiris who were martyred 89 years ago during a protest against the autocratic rule of a Hindu Maharaja within the Muslim majority state because of the "forefathers of today's Kashmiri resistance".

"Their descendants have, generation after generation, laid down their lives for freedom and today they still valiantly fight & defy a Hindutva Supremacist regime bent demographic engineering to wipe out the Kashmiri people & their identity," Khan tweeted.

He said Pakistan had always stood with the Kashmiris in their struggle for self-determination and would still stand with them in their "just struggle" till the Indian-occupied valley is free from illegal occupation, adding that the day was "not far".

Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, while paying tribute to the martyrs said that their courage had "galvanized a decades-old struggle for self-determination in 1931", which he said was an "inalienable right Kashmiris still die for to the present day".

He added that no occupation could "subjugate [the brave] spirit of Kashmir".

In a statement, he said that there had been ups and downs within the Kashmiris "exemplary struggle" from 1931 to 2020 but it had not "dampened their spirits". He said that India had brought in new laws and had used every sort of tactic. India had even tried to "buy out" the Kashmiri leadership, Qureshi said, but it had failed.

He assured the people of the valley that despite facing "problems and pain", they weren't alone. "Today, every child in Pakistan and every one the political and defense leadership is standing with you in your struggle for self-determination and can continue standing with you until it's achieved."

He added that the premier had raised the difficulty of Kashmir on every international forum, saying that he realized that "some of Pakistan's allies couldn't raise their voices [on Kashmir] due to their economic conditions".

"The world community remained silent when thousands of individuals were killed in Serbia. Will it repeat an equivalent mistake in occupied Kashmir?" he questioned, adding that the planet must learn from the massacre.

The secretary of state said that India was being "exposed" ahead of the planet as shown by the recent clash between India and China in Ladakh.

He urged the whole Ummah to become the voice of the people in occupied Kashmir and to use social media to form their voices heard "even in parts of the planet that have gone deaf".

Inter-services PR (ISPR) Director General Maj Gen Babar Iftikhar, during a tweet, said Kashmir Martyrs Day was "reminiscent of utmost price purchased freedom by brave Kashmiris".

He said "decades of Indian atrocities did not suppress insurmountable spirit & legitimate freedom struggle" of the Kashmiris, which was "destined to succeed".

PML-N chief and Leader of the Opposition within the National Assembly Shahbaz Sharif said the 22 martyred Kashmiris in 1931 had "written a history of bravery".

"Despite the intensification of violence post-August 5 by India, Kashmiris of all ages & across genders are challenging Modi’s fascism today with their blood. they're the hope of future!" he tweeted

Human Rights Minister Shireen Mazari said since the martyrdom of the 22 Kashmiris, "generations of Kashmiris have continued their struggle for freedom from illegal Indian occupation" and thousands of them are martyred.

She added that the struggle continued till date "as the fascist Modi government tries an illegal annexation of IOJK & seeks to vary the demography of the occupied territory against all law of nations incl[uding] Fourth Geneva Convention" and paid tribute to the "commitment and bravery" of the people of the occupied valley.

Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar said every Kashmiri martyr was the rationale "we can never ignore the plight of our Kashmiri brothers".

"Kashmiris are fighting against Indian atrocities and leading a freedom struggle for many years. India's violent, extremist & racist governments have butchered their rights," he added.

It was on July 13, 1931, when tens of many Kashmiris had gathered outside the premises of Central Jail in Srinagar where Abdul Qadeer, a resident of British India, was being tried on the charge of sedition, for inciting Kashmiris against the Dogra ruler at a gathering in Khanqah-i-Mullah on the summer solstice, an equivalent year.

At the time of midday prayer, one among the gang members stood to form a call to prayer and was shot dead by the police. He was succeeded by another member who met an equivalent fate. In all, 22 men rose to finish the decision to prayer and everyone was shot dead.

Interestingly, until last year the Kashmir Martyrs Day was also observed in occupied Kashmir. However, in December 2019, four months after revoking the special status of occupied Kashmir, the BJP government removed today from the territory’s official holiday list.

Occupied Kashmir sees 229 killings within the half of 2020: report

The occupied valley has seen a minimum of 229 killings during quite 100 military operations since January, consistent with a recently released report by the Jammu and Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society (JKCCS).

From January 1 to June 30, the region witnessed the extrajudicial executions of a minimum of 32 civilians and therefore the killing of 54 soldiers personnel, the report stated.

It also saw 55 internet shutdowns and therefore the destruction of 48 structures.

The report said three children and two women were also killed, while a minimum of "107 cordons and search operations and cordon and destroy operations were conducted within the region".

The Indian government had on August 5, 2019, repealed Article 370 of its constitution, stripping occupied Kashmir of its special status. It also divided occupied Jammu and Kashmir into two union territories; one Jammu and Kashmir, and therefore the other the Buddhist-dominated high altitude region of Ladakh. The bifurcation of the territory came into effect on October 31 last year.

A strict lockdown and communications blackout has been in situ in occupied Kashmir since August last year, with reports suggesting limited mobile data services and internet were temporarily restored within the region in January.