By: Aasef Chauhdry
At times I feel disappointed to see the attitude of those ignorant Pakistanis who are desperate to have cordial and warm relations with a cunning neighbour like India, amidst the latter’s dual character, atrocities in Kashmir and the brutal killings of the Muslims and other minorities of India. One fails to understand that how could one ever think of having friendly relations with a neighbour who has never admitted your existence ever since the independence?
The history of Kashmir is full of bloody accounts of killings, tortures and rapes of the innocent Muslims at the hands of the brutal Indian forces and the corneas of Maharaja Hari Singh. How can one forget the ruthless and heinous killing of over 2.5 lakh Kashmiri Muslim immigrants on 6 November 1947 in Jammu and surroundings? During the partition of the Sub-continent, the people of the state of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) which comprised Muslim majority decided to join Pakistan according to the British-led formula, however, Dogra Raja Hari Singh, a Hindu who was ruling over the J&K, in connivance with the Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and Governor General Lord Mountbatten, treacherously joined India.
The design to wrest Kashmir under duress began to open out on August 16, 1947, with the announcement of the Radcliffe Boundary Award which gave away the Gurdaspur District; a majority Muslim area to India to provide a land route to the Indian armed forces to move into Kashmir. There was a rebellion in the state forces, which revolted against the Maharaja and were joined by the tribesmen from the NWFP (now Khyber Pakhtunkhwa). Lord Mountbatten ordered armed forces to land in Srinagar. When Pakistan responded militarily against the Indian aggression, on December 31, 1947, India made an appeal to the UN Security Council to intervene and a ceasefire ultimately came into effect on January 01, 1949, following UN resolutions calling for a plebiscite in Kashmir to enable the people of Jammu and Kashmir to determine whether they wish to join Pakistan or India. On February 5, 1964, India backed out of its promise of holding plebiscite. Instead, in March 1965, the Indian Parliament passed a bill, declaring Kashmir a province of India-an integral part of the Indian union.
As part of pre-planned plot, on November 5, 1947, announcements were made everywhere in Jammu, asking Muslims to assemble in police lines where from they would be sent to Pakistan. On November 6, Jammu Muslims including men women and children were seemingly dispatched towards Pakistan in trucks, nevertheless, before they could reach the destination, Indian army, forces of Maharaja and Hindu Mahasabai goons and extremists at Samba Reasi and other places martyred them in gruesome manner. Thus, over 2.50 lakh Muslim inmates of Jammu city and adjoining areas were killed through a mass murder plan which could be termed as the holocaust of the subcontinent. As it was expected, the huge deaths had stunned the world and the ‘Time” magazine, in its November 47 publication also pointed out the figure of 2, 50,000 deaths of Jammu people.
was not one occasion. In fact the Indians have a black track record of killings the innocent Kashmiris, before and after 6 November 1947, in the burning valley. According to a report on human rights violations in the Indian Occupied Kashmir, since 1989, there have been deaths of 1,00000 innocent Kashmiris, 7,023 custodial killings, 1,22,771 arrests, 1,05,996 destruction of houses or buildings, 22,776 women widowed, 1,07,466 children orphaned and 10,086 women gang-raped/molested. Besides Human Rights Watch, in its various reports, Amnesty International has also pointed out grave human rights violations in the Indian controlled Kashmir, indicating, “The Muslim majority population in the Kashmir Valley suffers from the repressive tactics of the security In its report on July 2, 2015, the Amnesty International has highlighted extrajudicial killings of the innocent persons at the hands of Indian security forces in the Indian Held Kashmir. The report points out, “Tens of thousands of security forces are deployed in Indian-administered Kashmir…the Armed Forces Special Powers Act allows troops to shoot to kill suspected militants or arrest them without a warrant…not a single member of the armed forces has been tried in a civilian court for violating human rights in Kashmir…this lack of accountability has in turn facilitated other serious abuses…India has martyred one 100,000 people. More than 8,000 disappeared (while) in the custody of army and state police.” In this respect, European Union has passed a resolution about human rights abuses committed by Indian forces in the Indian held Kashmir. It is of particular attention that in 2008, a rights group reported unmarked graves in 55 villages across the northern regions of the Indian-held Kashmir. Then researchers and other groups reported finding thousands of mass graves without markers. In this respect, in August, 2011, Indian Jammu and Kashmir State Human Rights Commission officially acknowledged in its report that innocent civilians killed in the two-decade conflict have been buried in unmarked Notably, foreign sources and human rights organisations have revealed that unnamed graves include those innocent persons, killed by the Indian military and paramilitary troops in the fake encounters including those who were tortured to death by the Indian secret agency RAW. Indian authorities are not willing to talk with Kashmiri people on political grounds. New Delhi reached to a conclusion that only bullet is the right way of dealing with Kashmiris, demanding their right of self-determination.
Nonetheless, 6th of November is commemorated by the Kashmiris and Pakistanis as the Jammu Martyrs Day; another gloomy day to remember the supreme sacrifices of lives, laid down by 2,50,000 people of Jammu, who were ruthlessly massacred by the Hindu extremists, Indian forces and the Dogra military troops on November 6, 1947. No doubt that the people of Pakistan and Azad Kashmir display solidarity with the Kashmiri brethren in Pakistan, AJ7K and elsewhere in the world. Special ceremonies including seminars and symposiums are held in the small and major towns of AJK to pay glorious tributes to the Jammu martyrs. Besides that the Jammu Martyrs Day is also observed at both sides of line of control in Jammu and Kashmir like the rest of the world every year to commemorate the supreme sacrifices, however there are two main issues which keep disturbing the concerned minds; for how long the Kashmiris will remain the children of a lesser god and secondly when will the conscience of those ignorant people will wake up who, in the middle of this endless killing are showing a lost sleep to have friendly relations with “Killer India”?.
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