This is the day when Pakistan betrayed Kashmiris and stabbed them in the back
New Delhi: When the British divided India in 1947 and allowed the creation of Pakistan, Jammu and Kashmir declared itself an independent country. On August 12, 1947, the Maharaja demanded a permanent agreement with both India and Pakistan. While India did not sign, Pakistan accepted the proposal and sent a letter ratifying it to Janak Singh, the then Prime Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, on August 15, 1947. While the world is agitated over the Israel-Hamas-Palestine issue, Kashmiris remember October 22, 1947 as the darkest day in the history of Jammu and Kashmir, when Pakistan hatched its nefarious conspiracy to usurp the independent country. Thousands of people were killed. Changed the land, and history in the region.
22 October is celebrated as Black Day in Jammu and Kashmir.
But Pakistan had different intentions. He wanted Jammu and Kashmir by all means and planned and executed the invasion not by his army but by the tribals. And the raids began early on October 22, 1947. Thousands of tribals were supplied with arms and ammunition, and transported by the Pakistani Army. Regular army soldiers also joined the attackers in plain clothes.
The invasion, under the command of Major General Akbar Khan of Pakistan, was named ‘Operation Gulmarg’ and the mission was to seize land.
The tribals first captured the bridges over the Neelum River connecting Muzaffarabad and Abbottabad and captured the first major city, Muzaffarabad. The invaders killed Hindus, Sikhs, looted and burnt their houses. Large numbers of women and girls were raped and abducted. After this the attackers moved towards Uri, Baramulla and reached there on 26 October. The devastation of murders, rapes and looting was repeated at every stop along the way.
Apart from Muzaffarabad, Baramulla was another major city which bore the brunt of the ferocious tribals. Hindus and Sikhs were massacred. Women were raped and kidnapped. The tribals did not even spare the hospital run by Christian missionaries. They killed everyone there, even the Muslim patients. The looting continued for three days. When the fall of Srinagar seemed imminent, Maharaja Hari Singh sought help from India and signed the Instrument of Accession on 26 October.
Then Indian soldiers landed in Srinagar and the fight to save Kashmir began. By 8 November the Indian Army had captured Srinagar, by 9 November Baramulla and by 13 November Uri. However, the war continued for more than a year until a ceasefire was declared on the night of December 31, 1948, with the Pakistani Army formally entering the war in support of the tribesmen.
Kashmir was saved but its pieces were taken to Pakistan. Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK) is part of the original Kashmir, whose borders touch Pakistan’s Punjab, North-West, Afghanistan’s Wakhan Corridor and China’s Xinjiang region.
A part of the Shaksgam Valley of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir was illegally ceded to China by Pakistan in 1963 when the two countries signed a boundary agreement to settle their border differences.
The total area of the border of the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir was 2,22,236 square kilometers. After the signing of the Instrument of Accession on October 26, 1947, this area became part of India.
Of the area, 78,114 square kilometers is under illegal occupation of Pakistan while 38,000 square kilometers is under illegal occupation of China; And in addition, 5,180 sq km in the Shaksgam Valley, Pakistan illegally ceded to China under the boundary agreement of March 2, 1963.
After the failed Operation Gulmarg of 1947, Pakistan attacked India in 1965, 1971 and even in 1999 and was defeated every time. Believing that it could not win a war with India, Pakistan started cross-border terrorism in Kashmir from 1988 by playing the religion card. Terror was spread in the valley in the name of Jihad. Thousands of people were killed and minorities were uprooted.
For all these decades, Pakistan has been spreading falsehoods about Kashmir, including its culpability in the 1947 tribal invasions.
October 22, 1947 is no less than a doomsday for the people of Jammu and Kashmir, including those under siege by Pakistan and China.
The horror that the world is seeing in Israel-Gaza, the people of Kashmir have been facing for a long time at the hands of Pakistan.
