Letter to the Editor – Untold stories of 1947 invasion

Daily excelsior

Sir,
Apropos ‘Civilian Resistance at Ichhama-A 1947 Pakistan Invasion Story’) by Dr Ramesh Tamiri, many knowledgeable persons have recounted stories and anecdotes of the invasion of Kashmir on October 22, 1947. Dr Tamiri has, for the first time, lifted the curtain from some untold but historically important events of that invasion. I fully endorse his view that it is a misnomer to call it an incursion by the tribesmen. It was a well-conceived, well-planned and well-executed Pak military operation aimed at the annexation of Jammu and Kashmir in which Pakistan army soldiers and officers disguised as civilians led the lashkars of frontier Pathans vaguely called tribesmen. The first meeting of these warlike Pathans of the frontier was organized by Pakistani military commanders in Landi Kotal village close to the Khyber Pass just a fortnight prior to the actual movement of the lashkars for which purpose nearly three hundred trucks were requisitioned by the Pak and NWFP governments jointly.

It is regrettable that the story of resistance shown by the brave Sikhs and some Hindus of the valley targeted by the invaders has not been told adequately in any history book of the Kashmir invasion. The glorification of the resistance force was more appreciable in the background of the resistance groups being dismally deficit of arms and ammunition. The Sikhs of the valley of not one but any villages offered resistance before they were overpowered owing to the numerical superiority of the invading Pak troops disguised as civilians and also because they were dismally short of weapons and ammunition. They fought and became martyrs.They fought at Chh oor-Bulgam in Sopore, and Ichhama and Atna in Tangmarg region. Over 300 Sikhs were massacred in the Bulgam encounter on 30 October 1947. Sikhs of the Hamal region and Ashnaji (Uri) could not flee in time. There were gruesome massacres at Ashnaji, Shalakot, Wampora, Chogul, Yaarbug, Dangiwacha, Ninghal and Budgam.

The prime accomplices in identifying the Sikh populated villages, in looting and burning the Sikh and Hindu house were those who until the previous day were in the forefront of NC rallies raising the slogans Sher-I Kashmir ka kya irshad/Hindu, Muslim Sikh ittehad. These horrendous massacres, notwithstanding, in the first public rally in Baramulla sometime in the second week of November 1947, after its recapture on 8 November 1947, Pandit Nehru and Sheikh Abdullah addressed the large gathering in what is now called Cariappa Park in Baramulla. Nehru eulogized the Sheikh and declared that the religious minorities of Pandits and Sikh were safe in the hands of the National Conference.

The article of Dr Tamiri is a pointer to the truth that innumerable vital distortions or omissions in contemporary Kashmir history need to be set right. The one example is the myth that Maqbool Sherwani misled the tribesmen which saved the city of Srinagar. The true history is yet to be written. A befitting monument to the memory of the Kashmiris who were martyred in the Pakistani attack of October 1947 should be raised in Pratap Park area in Srinagar with an adjoining museum and library. Also two streets in Srinagar should be named after Sardar Ujagar Singh Mistri and Mata Gangi Kaur both of whom laid down their lives fighting the enemy.
K N Pandita, by email.