NUTAN RESUTRA
We are all very much familiar with the much talked about Vivek Agnihotri movie The Kashmir Files. One may wonder; now what is this Mirpur Files? Never heard of it. Yes, never heard of it because this is no movie; but a tragedy of such magnitude that perhaps none can be able to sum it up in a movie. The Mirpur Files is the greatest wound in the heart of India and all the displaced people of Mirpur, Kotli.
A lot of discussions are taking place on various platforms, ranging from print media to electronic to social media about The Kashmir Files. At least for once, the genocide and exodus undertaken by Kashmiri Pandits in 1990 has made everyone think about the darkest chapter called Militancy in the State of Jammu and Kashmir. Different reactions have come to the said movie ranging from raising voices against genocide of Pandits to criticizing the movie for not showing the atrocities committed upon other persons including Muslims, Sikhs and Hindus. But I shall not go to making comments upon these controversies.
I am reminded of the statement of Prime Minister Narendra Modi when he called upon everyone to observe August 14 as the Partition Horrors Remembrance Day! He said that displacement of millions, killings and rapes during the Partition are still vivid and observing this day is recognition of their sacrifices. What a great gesture! I would again not say why any other Prime Minister of India did not think of such a thing about Partition; least of all the First Prime Minister who had himself been a witness to this holocaust.
My simple plea is: Let another “Agnihotri” come forward who says something about this Horror Day; brings out a movie called the Mirpur Files. Although the wounds of Partition spread to many areas; most of all Punjab, but I shall try to contain myself only to Mirpur the erstwhile District of Muzaffarabad now submerged in Pakistan’s Mangla Dam.
We do find many books written about those days of Partition regarding Mirpur, Kotli and adjoining areas; but these works are too insufficient to express the real magnitude of the tragedy and sum up feelings of people. Vijay Kumar Gupta wrote about Kotli in his book Khoya Hua Kashmir and who is now settled in Delhi; Amravati Devi a former Government teacher wrote how she had slapped the then Prime Minister of Jammu and Kashmir in her book, settled and ultimately left her mortal remains in England; the local newspaper articles of Yuv Raj Gupta the first Railway Station Superintendent of Jammu railway station giving a graphical account of Battle of Kotli and those unforgettable days; and the web articles titled Archives of 1947. Even young scholars of third generation of Mirpuris settled or studying in England are conducting empirical and authentic research on the Fall of Mirpur. The latest in the series is much talked about book titled Embers the Beginning and Embers the End of Mirpur by a former Indian Army Officer Captain (Dr) Kulvir Gupta. I want to quote certain incidents from his book just to reignite hurting memories of those who suffered and are trying in vain to forget!
The residents of Mirpur who somehow survived massacre sought shelter in the famous Alibegh Gurudwara, but were surrounded by the Pakistani soldiers who became their so -called guards. In factthe invaders were there to kill, torture, rape and commit unimaginable atrocities upon them. Dr. Kulvir was a small boy at that time. On second day of their captivity, those soldiers collected forty odd healthy males from the Gurudwara and took them out. When others started protesting the soldiers said that those males were deputed to bring ration for inmates. Dr. Kulvir’s father was also one of them. This whole group left with soldiers but none of them returned. And nobody knew what happened to them. It was much later that the others came to know of the horrific fate of those unfortunate forty. And this was told by one survivor who had luckily escaped death that day; his name was Master Harbans Lal.
Master Harbans Lal while giving detailed account of what had happened on that unfortunate day said that all those persons were asked to disrobe and stand naked on the bank of Mangla Canal. Some of the soldiers took to guarding those hapless sheep of men and a small group of four to five soldiers picked up one victim after the other, beating him with their gun butts and army boots. Butts landed on heads and kicks rained on hunger starved stomachs, faces, legs, rather any and every body part! Harbans Lal begged them to shoot him, but the soldiers laughed and scornfully retorted: Hamare pas kafiron par zaya karney ke liye aath aaney ki goli nahin hai ! (We do not have eight anna bullet to waste upon a kafir). Risking life and finding space in legs of guarding soldiers, Harbans Lal suddenly ran and jumped in the icy waters of Mangla Canal. The soldiers ran firing at him, but by luck he survived to tell this horrific tale to all. The former Army Captain Dr. Kulvir also narrates in that book how the women folk were brutally gangraped in that house of God!
I have dared to quote just one incident. Each and every house of a Mirpuri now has tales to tell: tales that are filled with unimaginable brutalities and atrocities committed by none other but those who once had been friends, colleagues, neighbors and even servants; tales that rip open the wounds that have been stitched painfully with threads of time and yet keep on oozing blood in the form of tears from eyes. Each Mirpuri is a living book of horror stories asking only one simple, but unanswerable question: Hamara kya dosh tha ?
Now people also say Mirpur was a flourishing town, a center of trade in whole of the erstwhile State with Biblical land of milk and honey. Was there no faujto protect them when this genocide started? Yes, there was Maharaja’s fauj comprising mostly of the Muslims who themselves turned upon their comrades; slaughtered them and joined the Pakistani attackers. The brave Mirpuris did fight for some time, but it was the proverbial fight of the Light Brigade. Being faced with Hobson’s Choice, with nothing upon them, they tried to move to safety for their lives and the lives of their family members, only to jump from frying pan into the fire.
There are endless tales and an unfathomable sea of blood and tears. It is just not possible for me to narrate all these. That is why I say Let there be The Mirpur Files also! Why? So that at least some one can try to find the answer to hamarakya dosh tha? My contention in writing this piece is that let us rewrite history and bring the truth to light. Truth that has been wrapped under many layers of lies and deception.Let it also come out and feel a breath of fresh air.
Dear readers, I am neither politician nor do I intend to create any niche for myself; but many lakhs and lakhs of people who have undergone this unimaginable tragedy and their future generations like me do at least deserve this much to know what our fault was. What for were we punished? Whose lust for power it was that separated millions and stabbed a permanent wound in the heart of this country? We, who lost everything, and I say everything, must know the one- word truth: Why?
I want to add just one thing here. A contingent of Indian Army was posted near Kotli that was headed by the then young Major S. K. Sinha who ultimately became Lt. General SK Sinha, formerly Hon’ble Governor of Jammu and Kashmir State. Sh. Yuv Raj Gupta, in a meeting with the former asked him why he did not make any effort to save the civilian population from massacre and not let Kotli fall. Sh. Sinha answered most honeslty: Hamey hukamnahintha!! The thing is; kis ka hukamnahintha? Why were Mirpur and Kotli left to fall for the mercy of most unmerciful invaders and ultimately God- forsaken to be made part of Pakistan? Kis ka hukamtha? And why Rajouri and Poonch that had been captured by Pakistani forces and remained with Pakistanfrom November 1947 to April 1948 were easily retrieved by the Indian Army, but Mirpur-Kotli were handed over on a plate to Pakistan? Yeh bhiks ka hukamtha ;yaphirkis ka hukamnahinntha?
We the Mirpuris want to know the answers to these questions. I know, if truth is brought to light, the answers will surely make many ecosystem politicians very uneasy and the dead ones wriggle in their ultimate resting places, where ever that be. But these answers will surely try to bring at least some solace to those generations who have suffered and are still agonized and are searching for the truth. If truth about Kashmiri Pandit genocide can be brought to light after thirty-two years, why not about the Mirpuris. Why we have to constantly bear the cross of lies of some ones who were in power at that time, acted God and played with lives, dignity, respect, property, everything those happy, peaceful folk had.
This is why I say, we must also have The Mirpur Files !
