By: Tooba Sheikh
Over the decades, many decades. Some blurry images, and today I am here, rising the curtain to unravel the scattered chunks to put them together. How can I take us to the dusty images which are blurred with the crushing pressure of years? But we must venture to resurrect those dead who are lying under the rubble of history.
Let us clear a foggy image. It was October 22, 1947. 5000 Pakistani government-backed tribal fighters stormed the city of Muzaffarabad via Abbottabad to save their jugular vein from Hindu menace. This invasion was given the name of Operation Gulmarg.
Documented accounts state that the massive killing of men and women and sacking of towns were carried out as a part of this operation. An immense degree of violence and looting has been recorded during Operation Gulmarg.
Many of the raiders were involved in robbing, murdering, and setting the properties of people on fire. After inflicting destructions in Muzaffarabad they marched towards the city of Baramulla and carried the same mayhems of brutality there. There are also some accounts of the abduction of women. Many residents left their town for their safety.
The warriors headed onto Srinagar to capture it. But before reaching Srinagar the havocs of killings, and plunder were repeated at every stop along the way. The militia was highly disorganized and poorly orchestrated. They entered Kashmir as liberators.
But liberation from what? Liberation from lives. Yes, they were the true liberators because they stripped the souls of people out of the prison of bodies. They shot everyone whom they found non-muslim. Many women jumped in the river to escape capture. Dead bodies could be easily seen floating in the river. This attack was launched for the liberation of the Kashmiri people but proved to be a disaster that paved the way for the Indian stranglehold on Kashmir.
In the heyday of independence when the echoes of freedom banged against the lofty hills of Kashmir, the Muslims of Poonch (now a district of Azad Kashmir), living a life of pitiable plight under Dogra dominion, in their pursuit of freedom revolted against the prince of the state, Hari Singh, which he dealt with an iron fist.
When the news of Muslim persecution reached Pakistan, the government began to brainwash the tribal militias to go and save their Muslim brothers. They launched Operation Gulmarg and invaded Kashmir. The Pakistani government had this false notion that the prince of the state of Jammu and Kashmir, Hari Singh would surrender and ask Pakistan to intervene and Pakistan in the pretext of assistance claims her right over Kashmir.
But politics plays ironically. Instead, Hari Singh made a plea to India for assistance and India offered the help but with the condition of signing the Instrument of Accession which the prince of the state had to accept overlooking Kashmiri sentiment and ignoring the fact that the majority of Kashmiri people were Muslims and never wanted accession with India. India landed its troops in Srinagar on October 27, 1947, to liberate the valley from Pakistani invaders. Indian army pushed them back but itself dwelled there forever. It was a deep ditch in which people of Kashmir had been pushed down and it began a new course of the struggle for their freedom.
Why did the government of Liaquat Ali Khan sponsor the tribal warriors to invade Kashmir without the permission of Governor-General Muhammad Ali Jinnah? Why Mr. Jinnah was kept uninformed? Is this because he was against the liberty of the Kashmiri people or Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan was more enthusiastic to liberate Kashmir? Our questions let us trace back the faintest voice that is fading away in shallow shrieks. Let us turn the pages of history. It was August 13, 1948. India had taken the dispute to United Nations against Pakistani aggression.
UNCIP stipulated to arrange for a plebiscite to be carried out to provide the people of Kashmir with the choice of which state to join. Pakistan and India both agreed upon it. But the latter one is known for carrying the legacy of not keeping promises which was passed on to her by one of her founding fathers Lal Jawahir Nehru.
Practically India deprived Kashmiris of exercising their right to self-determination. No plebiscite has ever been conducted and the fate of Kashmiris is like a sandwich between Pakistani cold conduct and Indian bloodlust. And we are nothing more than the gutless spectators of our destruction.
Let us not get disgraced by the fact that a country having nuclear power and a country claiming to own presumably the 9th largest army in the world is failing its jugular vein. Let us accept the fact that the approach of Pakistan towards Kashmir is lacking strategy and vision. Let me not blame us for bashing a country that has forgotten to rectify its colossal political blunder. Let us look at the small picture of large history. It was March 16, 1846. A notorious document called ‘Treaty of Amritsar’ was signed between British colonizers and Dogra prince Gulab Singh.
According to the treaty, the land of Kashmir was sold to the Dogra ruler and he was bestowed with the title of Maharaja. Following the treaty, the Dogra prince paid 75 lacs Nanak shahi (ruling currency of that time) to the British regime and occupied the land he never belonged to. Kashmiris were subjugated to a dynasty whose successor’s one after the other ruled the land but failed to rule the hearts of people. Their discriminating policy against Kashmiris rose agitation among the masses and they started raising their voices against the cruelties of the state.
But Dogra regime had a history of abusing its power by crushing the voices of those whom they found inconvenient. However, there always remain those brave faces in the mirror of history who refuse to bow down. And violence is the only option to get them out of the way. The fight of the Kashmiri people is not a fight for a piece of land only. This is a fight that extends its horizon for memory against forgetting. This fight spreads its boundaries for justice against oppression. And this is a fight of awakening against slumber.
Because losing a piece of land is not as terrible as losing dreams, losing hope, and losing ideology. Their struggle doesn’t consist of decades. It is a journey encompassing centuries. The suppression of the Kashmiri people traces back its root to Mughal Dynasty. It was overthrown by Afghans and then the serpentine history witnessed the Sikh rule which Dogra overtook and later passed onto India. Now the world is witnessing how a country whose secular credibility is questionable trying to throttle the aspiration of a people.
Let us not stop cursing the politicians on both sides of LOC who are playing their politics on the blood of Kashmiris. They are just fighting for their shelf life quite oblivious of the fact that fidelity to an idea is the concept larger than life. But wait. Let us not call ourselves fighters. Let us not fight back. Let us not die in the quest of truth to perpetuate our history and preserve our epoch. Let us die without name and identity.
Let us die without showing resistance. I came here to let us make a collective mistake of chipping away the fear of facing the truth. I came here to discover fears that impede death. I came here to recall a fading memory again and again because those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
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