BY DR.ABDUL AHAD
The brute display of brazen savagery against the majority community brought in great disrepute the feudal institution of Hindu royalty pushing it off its pedestal and converting it into a notorious centre of violent Muslim-bashing allowing it to push religious bigotry, political vendetta and racial prejudice sky-high to set in motion Dharma-Yud to bring about an unthinkable blood bath of the masses with the motive of not only instilling fear among them but also diluting the Muslim majority character of the State to ensure its uninterrupted political ascendancy and continuation. To avert stubbing out the red glow of its setting Sun by any available means was, thus, the actual game plan to which it stuck so religiously; defending it brashly against slipping into oblivion to make place for Islamic Crescent to shimmer on the horizon of Kashmir. What aggravated the situation further as the pouring into Jammu of refugees who brought with them the horrific memories of the Punjab communal holocaust only to add to its narrative of loot, arson and killings. Thus, with every passing day the acts of genocide and torture became more and more pronounced that ensued in heartless extermination of an inestimable number of people for the simple reason of their being Muslims. Hordes of them were driven out of the State into Punjab forcibly. Stephens, editor, Statesman, Calcutta, while penning down the nasty episode reports that from 15th August onwards “about five lakh Muslim population was uprooted from Jammu e Kashmir in eleven weeks time… Two lakhs were wiped out in such a way that even their traces were not found… Remaining saved their lives by fleeing to West Punjab in helpless condition”. Lord Mountbatten has also sketched the poignant story briefly, telling the facts just as they happened in these words: Unrelenting attacks of non-Muslim crowds on Musim villages” were carried in subtle way in the State of Jammu & Kashmir.
From rural areas the Dharma-Yud was carried deep into the heart of Jammu city and its suburbs where the Muslims were cunningly tricked into the trap of obliteration. The frightening incidents that followed are so bitter that they bring big tears to our eyes and send a shudder of fear through the spine of those who have lived the ordeal to tell us the tale of barbaric acts of violence committed by the racist regime, One among them is 95 years old Professor: namely Abdul Aziz Bhat, Ex. Registrar of erstwhile JK University who groans with enormous pan, even after elapsing of six and a half decades, when he gives a heartrending eye-witness account of the genocide. Though being lucky enough to have run off miraculously the web of mass assassination, he lost his two years old daughter and left thumb in the firing, Except for the exact date, day, time and location of the crime plus the count of those slewed in cold-blooded murder, he vividly remembers each and every detail of what happened on the ill-fated day.
The Government, recounts he, made repeated announcements imploring Muslims to assemble at Police Lines for their guaranteed passage from insecure city to safe areas. Like other Muslims of Talab Khatyan and Ustad Mohalla, he and his spouse responded to the call instantaneously and joined a scared and nervous multitude at the venue along with their two babies (1, two years and 2, six months old) and boarded the bus under the Government’s false pretence of taking them to “protected zones”. Having traversed hardly a few miles the driver stopped the bus abruptly and mislead the passengers into believing that they had reached their “destination’”. On disembarking they found themselves besieged by an excited police platoon to shower them with volleys of gunshots. A sizeable number of them fell to the bullets (how many got killed is still not known). And the rest including his spouse ran helter-skelter and she finally, along with her six months old baby she was carrying with, ducked into the waters of nearby canal to escape the assault.
The professor had a providential escape, indeed. A bullet hit him but it only spaced out his left thumb and pierced through the abdomen of his two years old daughter; he was carrying in his hands near to his body, to silence her forever. Oblivious to this misfortune and the resultant pain and bleeding, he fled the scene of Yud, holding his baby tightly to his chest. After a great difficulty he joined his family near the canal. The sight of his worsening plight and the bullet stricken dead body of his child evoked loud screams and cries from his spouse to make him conscious of what had happened to him: he had lost his left thumb and infant daughter to the Yud. For want of arrangements he was terribly inundated by the worry of decent burial of the deceased and could, in the circumstances, think nothing better than throwing the corpse into the waters of the canal; an act he remembers very painfully. The plague o communal rioting devastatingly left him with a permanent disability-a scar on his left hand that hangs around him till date.
Equally gruesome is the story of the brutal murder of a good number of Kashmiri Tangawallas who had come forward to help sightseers to reach Jammu for their onward march to their respective destinations. Twelve Tangawallas were undoubtedly valiant enough to volunteer to do the herculean job, under those tiring circumstances, of transporting a large crowd of Hindu tourists stranded in the Valley by the non-availability of vehicular access to Jammu due to its disturbed conditions. But before reaching Jammu city they were slaughtered in broad day light at Nagrota by hoodlums patronized by the Government. As providence would have it, a Tangawalla managed to escape the scene of death and it took him about fifteen days to reach Srinagar to relate the ghastly experience to his brethren in the Valley
The mass killings of such enormity were bound to find adequate media coverage. The honest, impartial and intrepid chronicling of the events by the print media, thus, unfolded the Hindu ruler’s machinations to retain power by hook or by crook. The Urdu newspapers proved even more effective in exposing unambiguously the intentions of the protagonist of Yud and, thereby, generating a lot of fellow-feeling among the Muslims all over the West Punjab. Revealing reports that the rulers were determined to wipe out the local Muslim population could instigate them to counter all such attempts designed to destabilize the Islamic moorings of the State. The position became unbearably grave when a group of the victims of the dreadful circumstances succeeded in battling to survive the mass murder to take refuge in Punjab and North West Frontier Province and acquaint the inhabitants with their troubles. Bringing flood of tears in their eyes and heaps of pain to their hearts, their pathetic condition and suffering hastened to inflate their rage; stirring them up to revenge themselves on the Dogra establishment for the atrocities it had perpetrated on the majority community over a period of time.
The emotions of the tribesmen of Peshawar, Dhir and Chitral were, however, inflamed so extremely that they decided to come out openly in support of the oppressed and give them armed help to fight their oppressor. A band of about five thousand armed volunteers of Pathan, Afridi, Waziri and Mahsud background, therefore, crossed the boarders to rescue Kashmir and reinforce the position of the army of the Provisional Government already engaged in a fierce fighting against their tormentor. The big news flashed around within no time and spread like a wild fire to make the state of affairs murkier and vulnerable to exploitation; engaging the newly created dominions into a manipulative politics and forcing the Maharaja to abdicate, and flee the capital city, Srinagar”. Both India and Pakistan exploited it to the hilt; but it was India that drove maximum advantage out of the volatile situation that pushed Kashmir finally into the quandary of dispute.
Dr. Abdul Ahad is a well-known historian of Kashmir. He presents a perspective on the Kashmir issue and talks about Kashmir’s history and individuality and personality.
