Srinagar, July 13 -- For the first time since 1948, there was no holiday and official function to commemorate the annual Martyrs' Day in Jammu and Kashmir on Monday.

In a break from past, there was no function at the Martyrs' graveyard here after the government dropped July 13 from the list of gazetted holidays last year following the abrogation of special status of the state now turned into a union territory.

Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah, the then prime minister of Jammu and Kashmir, had declared July 13 as a holiday in 1948.

Apart from the official function at the Martyrs' graveyard situated in the lawns of Sufi shrine of Bahaudin Naqshband, unionist political leaders used to pay floral tributes at the resting place of 22 Kashmiris who w...