SRINAGAR, July 13: Indian-occupied Kashmir was shut down on Saturday as freedom activists called a one-day strike to mourn 21 Kashmiris slain 71 years ago by a Hindu king.

On July 13, 1931, some 21 Kashmiris protesting the king’s autocratic rule were killed by Maharaja Hari Singh’s army outside the central jail in Srinagar.

The strike was sponsored by Kashmir’s main pro-freedom alliance, the All Party Hurriyat Conference.

Shops, schools, banks and post offices were all shut and most traffic was off the streets in Srinagar, a city of one million people.

The alliance said in a statement that the strike was “to commemorate those who laid their lives for the freedom of Kashmir in 1931 ... and to remember all those who have sacrificed their lives for Kashmir’s freedom since 1931.”

“On this day we pledge to take the ongoing freedom struggle to its logical end,” the Hurriyat said.

On the other side of the spectrum, Kashmir chief minister Farooq Abdullah paid tribute to “a great legacy left by martyrs.”

Omar Abdullah, Farooq’s son and the chief of the ruling party, visited the graves of the men slain in 1931, where he showered flower petals amid tight security. —AFP