" I belong to Baramullah. As a youngman of 19 years , i saw death, destruction and plunder of Baramullah town in October 1947 . You can't feed incorrect history to people who have lived the period and are privy to events .I wonder why some events have been presented wrongly with a factually incorrect narrative . May be this narrative suits some but facts are facts.I am referring to events of Tribal Raid in Kashmir. Lot of wrong information has been fed to people.
( MAQBOOL SHERWANI )
As far as Maqbool Sherwani is concerned i need to clarify that he was a staunch follower of Sheikh Mohd Abdullah. That time we would hear a slogan ( coined by Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah ) from National conference cadres " Hindu Muslim sikh Ittehaad " . Sherwani remained unshaken in this belief when most of his cadres shifted loyalities and sided with advancing marauders sent by Pakistan . Sherwani's misguiding Tribal raiders on " The road to srinagar city" is untruth. The raiders had no dearth of local guides, accomplices and active supporters . knowing Road to Srinagar city was no issue. For raiders, Locating Sherwani had a purpose .Through him , the tribal raiders wanted to reach Sheikh Mohd Abdullah whom they wanted to capture and take along as per the plan. They had instructions to bring Sheikh Mohd Abdullah dead or alive as Pakistani leadership at that time considered him an enemy and an obstacle in annexation of kashmir. Sherwani's house was searched but he could not be located. He was in touch with his party leadership in Srinagar . He would travel to srinagar on his motorcycle during nights .
Finally , the raiders found him when he was on his way to srinagar riding his motorcycle . Unfortunately , He was identified by his own men after he was caught . He was killed mercilessly by the savage beasts.
In fact the delay of two crucial days in moving to srinagar city was due to internal fight that the tribal raiders had with their commander named khursheed Anwar. Khursheed Anwar had recieved a sum of rupees three lakh to be spent on tribal raiders . The raiders asked Khurshid to distribute the money. Khurshid refused and told them that the amount had been given for the whole operation and not for distribution among them . That made tribal raiders angry and they suspended operation for two days. For two days , they shifted to looting and killing people in Baramullah town.
Tribal raiders were fed with wrong information that Kashmiri Pandits had enough gold with them . So, Initially they mistook Brass for gold and took away many Brass utensils from pandit houses thinking it was gold. All this we saw in the godown of the plundered goods in Baramullah once Indian Army arrived and the raiders made hasty retreat in panic and fear . I saw them fleeing through Baramullah town in trucks, lorries, Tongas and Reddas .
In Baramullah town, for two days, They only looked for " Zar , Zewar and Zenana ( cash , jewelry and women )
To Baramullah they did what Nadir shah did to Delhi. They looted jewelry, shops and houses and kidnapped and raped so many Hindu and sikh women in groups. Baramulla Tehsil office had been made a raping centre by these marauders. Many women jumped into river jheum to save their honour. I saw this naked dance of death and destruction personally .
What they did to european Nuns , Nurses, teachers and Missionary doctors and their families in Baramullah is very tragic, shameful , Brutal and inhuman.
This nonstop killing , plunder , loot ,rape and mayhem in Baramulla for two days halted their advance and saved srinagar city and simplified the task of Indian army in kicking them out. Prior to that , like a true Kshatriya, Brigadier Rajinder singh put a halt to their march by engaging them in gunfight for four days with limited soldiers .
Under instructions from Maharaja " Fight to the last man and the last Bullet" , with just 110 soldiers, Brigadier Rajinder Singh put a crucial halt to the advancement about 5000 tribal marauders . He used guerrilla tactics to fight and engage them that delayed their advance towards Srinagar city. He engaged them in gun battle near Uri bridge, Mahura and Rampur, inflicting heavy casualties. I have not found such a warrior in contemporary military history. I mean an army chief personally leading soldiers in the combat. He is the real saviour of Srinagar city from the beastly marauders. This great Soldier died of bullet wounds in Battle Field."
(Avtar Mota)
PS
Padamshri Dr Kashi Nath Pandita is an Authority on Central Asian Culture, linguistics and History. Dr Pandita is a renowned Persian Scholar , Author , Translator , journalist and Historian.
Dr. Pandita hails from Baramulla , a town completely devastated in 1947 by Tribal raiders from across the Border .
The footnotes to the pages of " Baharistaan e Shahi" that he translated from Persian to English , are an ample proof of his knowledge, scholarship and study.
He lived in Iran for 4 years to complete his Ph.D. from University of Teheran and where he was a favourite student of Prof zabihollah safa ( 1911-1999) a scholar of international repute. Dr Pandita.. remained Director of Centre of Central Asian Studies in University of Kashmir where from he retired in 1987. He is held in highest esteem by various Central Asian Academies / Universities.
He has closely worked with so many scholars from Central Asia more specifically from Tajikistan.
His travelogue titled "My Tajik Friends" earned him the coveted Soviet land Nehru Award 1987.
Some prominent works of Dr. Pandita are:
1. Baharistan-i-Shahi, A Chronicle of Mediaeval Kashmir (translated from Farsi)
2. Avicenna – An Introduction
3. Iran and Central Asia
4. Ladakh, life and culture (edited)
5. Hafiz of Shiraz (Urdu)
6. Tohfatul Ahbab, ( English translation of a 17th century history of Kashmir .)
Dr. Pandita has authored innumerable research articles that have been published in many foreign journals . He has also attended so many international seminars and conferences at different places in the world.
CHINAR SHADE by Autarmota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 India License.
Based on a work at http:\\autarmota.blogspot.com\.
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