Nov 6 1947- When Jammu witnessed massacreOnly Valley was peacefulUMAR SHAHSrinagar: The social networking sites hereremained abuzz on Thursday while remembering the 67 years old massacre in Jammu that took place on November 6 1947 wherein around 300,000 Muslims, including women and children, were killedThe November 6 is remembered every year by the people of Kashmir with the seminars being arranged to pay tributes to people killed in that massacre.Reports isuggest that lakhs of Muslims inJammu on November 06, 1947 while migrating to the newly formed state Pakistan were attacked and the carnage carried by the extremist groups killed around 3 lakh people including women and children.British daily The London Times quoting its special correspondent in India stated that the Maharaja, under his own supervision, got assassinated 2, 37,000 Muslims, using military forces in the Jammu area. The editor of Statesman, IanStephen, in his book Horned Moon writes that till the end of autumn 1947, more than 200,000 Muslims were murdered in one go. Horace Alexander wrote in the Spectator (16 January 1948) that the killings had “the tacit consent of State authority” and put the figure at 2, 00,000.One of the eye witnesses to this incident, Abdul Qayum Qureshi, has stated that there was a big ground where refugees were camping. Volunteers were guarding them, but everybody lived in a state of fear. The extremists and Dogra soldiers had besieged the area but they did not dare to enter the area. Muslim volunteers led by a former army official Captain Naseer-u-din defended the camp bravely,” witness said, adding that meanwhile a fresh group of refugees arrived but the ground was full so they were accommodated in an empty Haveli (a mansion). But the killers had taken positions in a trench close to the Haveli. And when people entered the Haveli premises, the killers started indiscriminate firing, but the Muslim volunteers fought back. Then a Dogra official, Chetan Chopra, arrived with the message that he wanted to talk to Captain Naseer-ud-din. Around 4 PM Captain Naseer returned saying the administration has announced a ceasefire and assured that the violators will be punished. The ceasefire continuedfor seven days but the situation remainedtense. On 5 November Muslims were asked to assemble in the police lines Jammu. I remember about 26 trucks and buses were present in the police grounds. People were ordered to board the vehicles so that they could be driven to Pakistan via Sialkot border. The Dogra officials circulated a rumor that these vehicles have reached Pakistan. We had absolutely no idea that they were butchered in the Kuthwa and Samba forests.Qureshi said that on 6 November a caravan of refuges in buses and trucks was driven towards the border area. I wasalso part of this caravan. But after half an hour drive the entire caravan was turned towards Bisna. Around 11 AM all of us, about 6000, were dragged out of the buses. Then they fired at us indiscriminately. The bloodbath continued for nearly three hours; like other people I took refuge in a canal. People hid under thorny bushes and wherever they could. At 3 PM the Dogra officials asked the survivors to come out hiding so that they could be driven to safe places. Having no alternative we came out, and fortunately on the directives of Sheikh Muhammad Abdullahwe were later shifted to a refugee camp inJammu. Only 250 had survived. My father was in the Valley and my two brothers were in Mirpur.”People here stated that the day is part of a collective memory of ‘oppression and resistance’ and serves as a reminder of struggles ahead.While recollecting the massacre a 65 yearold Farhat Ahmad said that his grandparents were among those who were killed on that day. Farhat while recollecting that losses he had to witnesson that day said that besides his grandparents, some of his mothers siblings, cousins, uncles and aunts were lost. “I am heartened to see that tragedy being commemorated. However, we mustalways remember that due to the pluralityof our current ethnic and religious makeup, such events do not instigate rancour and hatred, but draw all Kashmiris together to vow never to let this kind of atrocity happen again,” Farhatwrote on one of the social networking sites.Experts believe that the incident changed the majority status of Muslims in Jammu into the minority and was the part of the ‘ethnic cleansing’ wherein Muslims in millions were compelled to migrate from Jammu.Chairman Huriyat Conference (M) MirwaizUmar Farooq said that the day being remembered in Kashmir is a clear message that people here will continue their resistance and same shall continue till its logical conclusion.Senior Huriyat Conference JK leader and Mahaz-e-Azadi Patron Mohammad AzamInqilabi stated that the month of November started that resistance movement against the ‘Indian Rule’ in Kashmir and that people here since that month decided to tread the resistance path more vigorously sometimes with political resistance and sometimes with the armed.Meanwhile, the netizens across various social networking sites while remembering the November 6 Jammu massacre posted pictures and web site links wherein the sacrifices of the ‘Jammu Martyrs’ were eulogized.kashmirmonitor.in/news-nov-6-1947-when-jammu-witnessed-massacre-74156.aspx
Posted on: Sat, 08 Nov 2014 11:43:48 +0000
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