Feature

Blood and Bridge: Recalling World’s First Labour Movement

This day, 156 years ago, Kashmiri shawl weavers or Shawlbafs were brutally killed by Dogra gunners for resisting imposition of heavy taxes by the cruel crown.

To evade spear slaughter, hundreds of protesters jumped off the Haji Rather Sum Bridge at Zaldgar area in Old Srinagar. Along with 100 injured persons, at least 28 bodies were later recovered from the water body. However, despite being one of the chilling carnages in Kashmir history, no chargesheet was ever filed, no enquiry constituted or any memorial formed in the name of the martyrs of the first labour movement of the world on April 29, 1865.

Listen to the Podcast by Free Press Kashmir, with our host, Mehak Ayaz.

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