The Battle of Muzaffarabad was fought between Pakistani-backed Pashtun tribesmen and pro-Pakistani Kashmiri rebels, and the Jammu and Kashmir State Forces in the town of Muzaffarabad on 22 October 1947. The battle saw the swift defeat of the Jammu and Kashmir State Forces and the capture of Muzaffarabad by these tribesmen.
Upon the independence of India and Pakistan in August 1947, would see the Partition of India and the displacement of 10-20 million people. The Princely states that were once in a Subsidiary alliance with the British Empire were given three choices; join India, join Pakistan, or remain Independent. [3]
In the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir, Hari Singh, the Maharaja of Kashmir, chose to remain independent of both India and Pakistan.[ citation needed ] Hari Singh was an unpopular ruler, with the majority of his population being Muslim, while he was a Hindu. In the Poonch district, Muslim leaders such as Sardar Ibrahim Khan and Abdul Qayyum Khan began defying the Maharaja first by political means, before arming themselves into a full-scale rebellion.
In August 1947, mass unrest broke out in the Poonch district, as Hari Singh sent State forces under the command of Henry Lawrence Scott. [4] By September 1947, Sardar Ibrahim Khan and other rebels escaped to Pakistan, seeking Pakistani intervention and to acquire arms. [5]
On September 12th, Liaquat Ali Khan, the Prime Minister of Pakistan, called a meeting with numerous Kashmiri and Pakistani political and military leaders. According to Indian military sources, the Pakistani army planned an operation called "Operation Gulmarg" as an armed intervention in Kashmir without the consent of the government. As per this Operation, 20 tribal units called lashkars would invade Kashmir in numerous areas. Each lashkar would be composed of 1,000 tribal irregulars trained by the Pakistani army. Ten would be sent to aid the rebels in Poonch and were to advance to Jammu, while another ten would invade Muzaffarabad. The Pashtun force under Khurshid Anwar had high morale and were motivated by the prospects of a holy jihad and the riches and treasures they could receive. [6]
"The Khyber Agency and its adjacent tribal areas, located on the border with Afghanistan, contributed the maximum number of fighters to 'liberate' Kashmir from kafirs (infidels). The Pathan tribesmen, considered as 'the most troublesome and feared population on the sub-continent', were primarily motivated by the lure of women, money and land and the excitement of combat, which always had a great appeal for the fearless tribes. Added to this was the promise of a heavenly kingdom for those who fought to uphold the religious duty of jihad against a repressive 'infidel regime'. The ulema (Islamic scholars) in the North-West Frontier Province issued fatwas (religious decrees) for waging jihad in Kashmir."
— Khuram Iqbal, Umair Pervez Khan, Why the First Kashmir Insurrection Failed, p. 108
Muzaffarabad in present-dayOn October 21, 1947, Khurshid Anwar, leader of the Muslim League National Guard, crossed the border into Kashmir with 4,000 Pashtun tribesmen aimed to take Muzaffarabad. [7] The invasion route saw a group of footmen who were experienced with the area cross in columns from Dub Gali, however the bulk of the invasion from the frontier tribesmen crossed via the longer route through Lohar Gali in armoured vehicles and lorries. The invasion caught the Kashmiri defenders by surprise, as they had not anticipated the tribal invasion. The Kashmiri defenders also suffered from mutiny and mass desertion by its Muslim personnel. Brigader Ranijer Singh, overall commander of the front, dispatched the D, E, and F companies of the Second Battalion as reinforcements to defend Domel. [8] [9] Major Hira Lal Atal commanded a mountain artillery battery to provide artillery support. Additional reinforcements from Srinagar were sent although they did not reach Muzaffarabad in time. [8] The Jammu and Kashmir State Forces within the Muzaffarabad were only around 500 strong and were unable to repel the tribal invasion, the town quickly fell opening up the route to Uri and Baramulla. [10]
Upon the fall of Muzaffarabad, the Pashtun tribesmen remained in the town for 3 days before preparing to move onto Srinagar, their ultimate objective. After the victory, the terrorists were invited at dinner by Muhammad Aslam Khan Swati, a Khan of Garhi Habibullah and leading figure of this war.
The Pashtun tribesmen in Muzaffarabad spent three days looting and pillaging the town, killing non-Muslims and enslaving non-Muslim women. Gohar Rahman, a Pashtun tribesmen and veteran of World War II who took part in the invasion stated, [10]
"They plundered the state armoury, set entire markets on fire and looted their goods, they shot everyone who couldn't recite the kalima - the Arabic-language Muslim declaration of faith. Many non-Muslim women were enslaved, while many others jumped in the river to escape capture."Muslim women would sometimes offer us food but the Pathans were reluctant to accept, thinking it may be poisoned. They would instead capture those people's goats and sheep, slaughter them and roast the meat on fire."
Upon the capture of Muzaffarabad by the Pashtun tribesmen, who were jubilant over their victory and preparing to advance on Srinagar, had begun to exterminate and slaughter the non-Muslim population in Muzaffarabad. Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre state in reference to the killing of the Hindus in Muzaffarabad,
"The young leader of the invasion's advance guard was jubilant. The operation could not have been more successful. The route to Srinagar lay open before the Pathans, 135 miles of paved, undefended road, a promenade without danger they could complete before daybreak... The young man was quickly disabused of his dream. The strategists who had conceived this invasion had made one fatal miscalculation. When Sairab Khan wanted to set his force on the road to Srinagar, he discovered it had disappeared. There was not a single Pathan around his vehicles. They had faded into the night. Their crusade to deliver their Moslem brothers of Kashmir had begun with a nocturnal excursion to the Hindu bazaar of Muzaffarabad."
— Freedom at Midnight, p. 351
On October 24, Sardar Ibrahim Khan declared the Provisional Government of Azad Jammu and Kashmir. [11] The lashkars continued their advance to Uri and Baramulla, with some reaching the outskirts of Srinagar. On the same day, Hari Singh requested assistance from the Indian government, however they would only agree to aid the Maharaja if he acceded to India. On the 26th of October, Jammu and Kashmir was acceded to India on 26 October 1947 and Indian troops were transported by air to Srinagar by the next day.
Azad Jammu and Kashmir, officially the State of Azad Jammu and Kashmir and colloquially referred to as simply Azad Kashmir, is a region administered by Pakistan as a nominally self-governing entity and constituting the western portion of the larger Kashmir region, which has been the subject of a dispute between India and Pakistan since 1947. Azad Kashmir also shares borders with the Pakistani provinces of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to the south and west, respectively. On its eastern side, Azad Kashmir is separated from the Indian union territory of Jammu and Kashmir by the Line of Control (LoC), which serves as the de facto border between the Indian and Pakistani-controlled parts of Kashmir. Geographically, it covers a total area of 13,297 km2 (5,134 sq mi) and has a total population of 4,045,366 as per the 2017 national census.
The Indo-Pakistani war of 1947–1948, also known as the first Kashmir war, was a war fought between India and Pakistan over the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir from 1947 to 1948. It was the first of four Indo-Pakistani wars between the two newly independent nations. Pakistan precipitated the war a few weeks after its independence by launching tribal lashkar (militias) from Waziristan, in an effort to capture Kashmir and to preempt the possibility of its ruler joining India.
Maharaja Sir Hari Singh was the last ruling Maharaja of the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir.
Baramulla district or Varmul is one of the 20 districts in the Indian-administered union territory of Jammu and Kashmir in the disputed Kashmir region. Baramulla town is the administrative headquarters of this district. The district covered an area of 4,588 km2 (1,771 sq mi) in 2001, but it was reduced to 4,243 km2 (1,638 sq mi) at the time of 2011 census. In 2016, the district administration said that the area was 4,190 km2 (1,620 sq mi). Muslims constitute about 98% of the population.
Uri is a town and a tehsil in the Baramulla district, in the Indian union territory of Jammu and Kashmir. Uri is located on the left bank of the Jhelum River, about 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) east of the Line of Control with Pakistan.
Baramulla, also known as Varmul in Kashmiri, is a city and municipality of the Baramulla district of the Indian union territory of Jammu and Kashmir. It is also the administrative headquarters of the Baramulla district, located on the banks of the River Jhelum downstream from Srinagar, the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir. The town was known as gateway of Kashmir, serving as the major distribution centre for goods arriving in Kashmir valley from Punjab through Muzaffarabad and then distributed along the Jhelum Valley Road towards Banihal.
The following is a timeline of the Kashmir conflict, a territorial conflict between India, Pakistan and, to a lesser degree, China. India and Pakistan have been involved in four wars and several border skirmishes over the issue.
Khurshid Hasan Khurshid (Urdu: خورشید حسن خورشید) pronounced [xu:r'ʃi:d ɦəsəɳ xu:r'ʃi:d], popularly known by his acronym, K. H. Khurshid, was the Private Secretary of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the first Governor-General of Pakistan. He served Jinnah from 1944 until his death in 1948. Khurshid was the first elected President of Azad Jammu and Kashmir from 1959 to 1964. He was also the instigator of the Constitution of Azad Kashmir.
Sardar Muhammad Ibrahim Khan was a Kashmiri revolutionary leader and politician, who led the 1947 Poonch Rebellion against absolute rule of the Maharaja in the state of Jammu and Kashmir and played a key role in the First Kashmir War, supporting Pakistan. He served as the President of Azad Kashmir for 13 years across four non-consecutive terms and still remains the longest-serving president of the state, since its establishment.
Sudhan is one of the major tribes from the districts of Poonch, Sudhanoti, Bagh and Kotli in Azad Kashmir, allegedly originating from Pashtun areas. The Sudhan Pathans who settled in Azad Kashmir are mainly an important and major branch of the Saduzai tribe who migrated from Afghanistan in the 14th century AD and founded the present-day Azad Kashmir region of Sudhanoti and ruled here for hundreds of years.
Poonch District was a district of the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir, which is currently divided between India and Pakistan. The Pakistani part of the erstwhile district is now the Poonch Division in the Azad Kashmir territory, whilst the Indian part of the district is the Poonch district in Jammu and Kashmir. The capital of the Pakistan-controlled side is Rawalakot; while the capital of the Indian-controlled side is Poonch.
The history of Azad Kashmir, a disputed part of the Kashmir region currently administered by Pakistan, is related to the history of the Kashmir region during the Dogra rule. Azad Kashmir borders the Pakistani provinces of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to the south and west respectively, Gilgit–Baltistan to the north, and the Indian union territory of Jammu and Kashmir to the east. The region is claimed by India and has been the subject of a dispute between India and Pakistan since 1947.
Pashtuns of Kashmir and the Pathans in Kashmir include Pashtun people (Pathans) that may still follow Pashtunwali and speak Pashto as their mother-tongue who have settled in the Indian union territory of Jammu and Kashmir. While there are also a large number of people throughout Kashmir who claim Pashtun ancestry through forefathers who migrated to the region under the Afghan rule in Kashmir. While exact numbers are hard to determine, cursory estimates put the number of these Pathans or Pashtuns above 100,000. Many of these Pathans have over time absorbed Kashmiriyat and use Kashmiri language as their second language, although some people following Pashtunwali customs and aspects of Pashtun culture and Pashto are still notably practiced among the community, largely of them resides in district Ganderbal (Gutlibagh) and Anantnag, there are also Pathans in district Kishtwar, Baramulla and Kupwara (Haihama).
Christopher Snedden is an Australian political scientist and author. He has studied and published on the long-running Kashmir conflict between India and Pakistan. In his book, The Untold Story of the People of Azad Kashmir (2012), he proposed that the origins of the Kashmir dispute lay in the protests and eventual rebellion by the Kashmiri people of Poonch and Mirpur against Maharaja Hari Singh, and not in the subsequent invasion of Kashmir by Pashtun tribal militias from the North-West Frontier Province of Pakistan.
The Azad Kashmir Regular Force (AKRF), formerly known as the Kashmir Liberation Forces(KLF), were the irregular forces of Azad Kashmir until 1948. They then were taken over by the government of Pakistan and converted into a regular force. In this form, the unit became part of the country's paramilitary forces, operating out of the nominally self-governing territory of Azad Jammu and Kashmir. The AKRF was altered from a functioning paramilitary force and merged into the Pakistan Army as an infantry regiment following the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971.
Maqbool Sherwani was a National Conference member who delayed the invasion of Pashtuns tribesmen from Pakistan in Baramulla, Kashmir in October 1947. In this manner, he played an important role in buying time for Indian Army's Sikh Regiment troops who landed in Srinagar once the accession was accepted. Sherwani was killed by the tribesmen.
After the Partition of India, during October–November 1947 in the Jammu region of the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir, many Muslims were massacred and others driven away to West Punjab. The killings were carried out by extremist Hindus and Sikhs, aided and abetted by the forces of Maharaja Hari Singh. The activists of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) played a key role in planning and executing the riots. An estimated 20,000–100,000 Muslims were massacred. Subsequently, many non-Muslims were massacred by Pakistani tribesmen, in the Mirpur region of today's Pakistani administered Kashmir, and also in the Rajouri area of Jammu division.
Khurshid Anwar was a member of Indian National Army and an activist of All-India Muslim League, heading its private militia, the Muslim League National Guard. Described as a "shadowy figure" and "complete adventurer", he is generally addressed as a "Major" in Pakistani sources. He was a key figure in the rise of the Muslim League during 1946–47, organising its campaigns in Punjab and North-West Frontier Province, prior to India's partition. After the independence of Pakistan, he was instrumental in organising the tribal invasion of Kashmir, leading to the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947.
In spring 1947, an uprising against the Maharaja Hari Singh of Jammu and Kashmir broke out in the Poonch jagir, an area bordering the Rawalpindi district of West Punjab and the Hazara district of the North-West Frontier Province in the future Pakistan. It was driven by grievances such as high taxes, the Maharaja's neglect of World War veterans, and above all, Muslim nationalism with a desire to join Pakistan. The leader of the rebellion, Sardar Muhammad Ibrahim Khan, escaped to Lahore by the end of August 1947 and persuaded the Pakistani authorities to back the rebellion. In addition to the backing, Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan authorised an invasion of the state, by the ex-Indian National Army personnel in the south and a force led by Major Khurshid Anwar in the north. These invasions eventually led to the First Kashmir War fought between India and Pakistan, and the formation of Azad Kashmir provisional government. The Poonch jagir has since been divided across Azad Kashmir, administered by Pakistan and the state of Jammu and Kashmir, administered by India.
Colonel Narain Singh Sambyal, OBE, also remembered as the Savior of Kashmir, was a Commander of 4th Jammu and Kashmir State Forces who died fighting during the First Kashmir War at Domel Muzaffarabad.
