Kashmir's 17-year-old insurgency has seen many unique developments, but one of the oddest has been the abrupt conversion of parks into cemeteries. The first of these parks-turned-graveyards in the Valley came up in the traditional Eidgah grounds, in downtown Srinagar. Around 1000 people now lie buried here, all of them having fallen victim to the conflict. This plot of land, now encased in concrete and iron, used to be part of a vast playground.
The identity of the first person buried at the Eidgah 'martyr's graveyard' is not known; the epitaph on that grave simply reads Shaheed-i-Namaloom (martyr unknown), dated 20 January 1990. Habibullah Khan, caretaker at the cemetery, says he knows little of the identity of that first arrival: "They had brought the body from Uri. He was probably a militant belonging to JKLF, which was then the only militant outfit operating in the state."
Immediately to the right of the Shaheed-i-Namaloom lies the second grave – Mushatq Ahmad Malik of Srinagar, who was buried here on 21 January 1990, the day after the unknown martyr was interred. According to locals living in Eidgah's vicinity, a signboard announcing Beehist Shuuda (Martyr's Heaven) was erected at the former park in the early 1990s, as the eruption of armed insurgency killed more and more people.
"It was presumed that whoever would fall prey to the bullets of Indian forces in Kashmir Valley would be buried here, and that the process would continue till freedom was achieved," recalls Mohammed Shafi, a local knowledgeable about the martyr's graveyard. "However, this did not work for the people living in far-off villages, and people began to bury their dear ones in their respective localities. For city dwellers, too, the spirit of bringing martyrs to Eidgah died down slowly. Today you have a martyr's graveyard in every nook of Kashmir. There are said to be some 300 such graveyards in Kashmir."