London: On the martyrdom anniversaries of two important characters of freedom movement of Jammu and Kashmir, the Kashmir Centre has released highlighting the situation arising after the closure of the political path in Valley.Indian forces killed Junaid Sehrai in Nawakadal Srinagar, commander of Hizbul Mujahideen in Kashmir. He was also a son, raised watching his father Mohammad Ashraf Sehrai dedicate his entire life to Kashmirs political struggleWith every political avenue closed and every voice of dissent detained or silenced, Junaid Sehrai chose armed resistance. His father Mohammad Ashraf Sehrai was arrested two months later, aged 77, and transferred to Tihar Jail in Delhi. Bail was denied despite his deteriorating health.He died in custody on 5th May 2021. The state took both of them. By different means. With the same result. Neither came home. Kashmir mourned them both.Junaid Sehrai had grown up watching his father Mohammad Ashraf Sehrai dedicate his life to the political struggle for Kashmiri s elf-determination.Mohammad Ashraf Sehrai spent decades as a leading figure in the resistance movement, advocating through political channels, speeches and civil mobilisation. He was not a man of violence. He was a man of conviction. That Junaid chose a different path, the path of armed resistance, can only be understood within the context of a territory where every political avenue had been progressively deliberately closed.Junaid's martyrdom came during a period of intense military operations in Kashmir following India's revocation of Article 370 in August 2019.The communications blackout that followed severed the territory from the outside world for months. Political leaders had been detained en masse. Civil society had been systematically suppressed.In the vacuum left by the dismantling of every political channel, armed resistance intensified. This is not a justification. It is the reality of what occupation, taken to its logical conclusion, produces.Junaid Sehrai was mourned across Kashmir. His funeral drew thousands upon thousands of people despite heavy military presence and communications restrictions. The scale of the mourning was itself a political statement, an expression of grief and solidarity that no blackout could entirely suppress.Two weeks earlier, the funeral of Riyaz Naikoo had drawn the same response. Kashmir was burying its sons in front of an occupying army that had killed them, and refusing to do so quietly.Mohammad Ashraf Sehrai was arrested in July 2020, two months after his son's death. He was 77 years old. He was held in Tihar Jail in Delhi, hundreds of miles from Kashmir, his family and the land he had devoted his life to. Despite serious deteriorating health, requests for bail on medical grounds were repeatedly denied.He died on 5 May 2021 in a hospital bed, in custody, far from home. Father and son: the Indian state took both of them by different means, but with the same result. Neither came home. "The Indian state took both of them. Kashmir has not forgotten either."T he story of Ashraf Sehrai family is, in miniature, the story of what occupation does across generations. A father who chose political resistance. A son who chose armed resistance. A state that killed them both and called it security. Junaid Sehrai is remembered in Kashmir as a Shaheed. His father is remembered the same way. Their names are spoken together, as they lived: as a family that gave everything, and from whom everything was taken.