Mazar-i-Shuhada (Graveyard of Martyrs) by Ahanger HOBO

Taking a walk along the Valley floor it becomes obvious to the explorer that the history of Kashmir can be retold through its myriad mosques and shrines. Now, it was in the 20th Century that another narrative symbol came to define the modern Kashmir, that of the Martyr’s Graveyard. Outside the central jail which lies to the south near the fort wall is the location in which hundreds of Kashmiris were gunned down by Dogra forces in 1931. This was the first modern Kashmiri Muslim uprising against outside rule. The martyrs of this day are buried on donated land at Mazar-i-Shuhada, an ancestral burial ground of one of the visionaries of the first freedom movement. Inside this complex is a shrine in memory of Khwaja Bahau-ud-Din (1633) and a beautiful wooden mosque. It lies just south of the Jamia Masjid in the Old City.