J&K Government renamed Sher-i-Kashmir International Conference Centre (SKICC) by dropping title ‘Sher-i-Kashmir’, attributed to former Chief Minister of J&K Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah and giving it a new nomenclature viz Kashmir International Conference Centre (KICC).

SKICC is located on the bank of the famous Dal Lake overlooking the Zabarwan mountain range in the backdrop and in the neighbourhood of Mughal Gardens. The state-managed convention centre is first choice of many for hosting national and international events and is considered as focal point in organizing high profile conferences and meets. Despite change in name, the website of the prestigious convention centre is using the old one.

The SKICC was turned into a subsidiary jail since scrapping of the special status of J&K under Article 370 on August 5 last year. Among those detained at the SKICC were People’s Conference chairman Sajad Lone, senior PDP leader Naeem Akhtar, PDP’s youth wing president Waheed ur Rehman Para, senior NC leader Ali Mohammad Sagar, and bureaucrat-turned-politician Shah Faesal.

Earlier, the UT administration has cancelled two public holidays on December 5 and July 13. December 5 is commemorated as the birth anniversary of Sheikh Abdullah while July 13 was observed as Martyrs’ Day in Jammu and Kashmir. On that date in 1931, 22 Kashmiris were killed outside the Srinagar Central Jail, where they had assembled to protest against autocratic Dogra rulers.

The new holiday was on October 26, the date in 1947 when the former state of Jammu and Kashmir acceded to the Dominion of India. A day later, Indian troops reached Srinagar to drive out tribal raiders.