J S Sudan & Suchwant Singh
On August 15, 1947 when the country was celebrating Independence on one side after 200 years’ yoke of British Rule and the country was burning with turmoil of Partition, on the other side the state of Jammu & Kashmir was a beacon of peace and tranquility. The evil eyes of Pakistan were set on Kashmir, the Heaven on Earth. Pakistan Tribals aided and abetted by Pak Army attacked the valley of dreams, peace and tranquility in guise of Tribal raid on 22 Oct 1947 at Muzaffarabad. As a first natural reaction to this attack all the saner sections of the local populace, resisted the Tribal Raiders to save their state and honour and lives of their women and children. This resulted in halting the fast pace of raiders towards Srinagar which was hardly a few hours run from Muzaffarabad. In the process thousands of Hindus and Sikhs got dislodged, their houses burnt, property looted and thousands were killed mercilessly in cold blood, many of them were burnt alive. As per history, only a handful of soldiers under the command of Brig Rajinder Singh fought the Raiders along the Muzaffarabad-Uri-Srinagar route and were ultimately martyred before the arrival of Indian Army on October 27, 1947 after Instrument of Accession was signed by Maharaja Hari Singh acceding the state with Union of India. How come one will take it that even after signing of instrument of accession by the Maharaja, the force could not avert the massacre of about 10,000 people in Mirpur exactly after our month of attack on Muzaffarabad. Even in some areas of Rajouri like Budhal, killings continued till ending November 1947 and in some areas even upto December 1947. On all other fronts Poonch, Rajouri, Mirpur, Jhanger, Nowshera in Jammu province and Uri, Kupwara , Teethwal, Baramulla, Shopian in the Valley, open massacre of civilian- Hindu & Sikh populace was being executed by Raiders . It is irony of fate a chapter in history is written in the blood of innocent men women and children who were martyred by the Raiders even after the Government of India announced ceasefire. More than 45,000 men and women and children lost lives in this barbarian tribal raid. While men attained martyrdom fighting the Raiders defending the state and the honour and life of their and children, Raiders massacred and even burnt alive thousands of women and innocent children fleeing for safety or even in their captivity. In one of the most barbarian act whole populace of about 2000 Hindus and Sikhs were massacred on 24th Nov 1947. More than 4500 men, women and children were killed in Valley, whose village-wise names and full details are recorded in a book ‘Sacrifice for Kashmir’. We are unfortunate that even after a lapse of 75 years and while being in third and fourth generation now, we are still living in the same refugee camps/ Bastis where we were made to stay temporarily in tents provided by the then Govt. As of now and to the best of knowledge, Government has never given details about our future except that Govt will take back the illegally occupied area of the state from Pakistan & send the DPs back to their native places. DPs also show inclination to at least visit places of their ancestors. But how and when is a million dollar question? Sending DPs back to their native places means to make them refugees once again and leave the assets they have created the all these years with their hard work without any substantial assistance from Govt, should leave some and become refugees.
Various committees appointed to look to our sufferings and suggest solutions by Government of India for DPs rehabilitation & relief could not find the results due to apathy of successive Govts, the latest being in which the 183rd report of Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs, which was tabled before both houses of parliament on 22nd December, 2014, has not been debated till date . But the net result was the same except a token amount of Rs 5.5 lac/family then registered at the time of migration in 1947 was given as a token relief by PM in Nov 2015. All our demands were given consideration by the PSC and recommendations made be it interim relief of Rs 30 lakh/family, job package to children, education, creating a DP board to continuously look to DPs problems etc are all pending .
What worst have happened is that DPs have lost their language, customs, identity, culture and heritage. Some of our families settled in other states of Indian unions have totally lost their identity, even cultural traditions and even contacts with others of their tribe . Now GOI and state govt. has started their registration and giving them Domicile of state. To what use is this to DPs family is not clear. In such a scenario, different DP organizations living outside UT are working, shall continue to do so till justice is done. MJR47 has started locating some of those people who actually faced resisted the tribal attack, recorded their horrifying experience and our aim to collect such data and give it a shape of same document to show to our Country Supreme sacrifices given for our state. We the 13.5 lakh successors of the families of those martyrs of 1947 from PoJK, salute all our elders who fought so bravely like true patriots and refused to abandon their faith and preferred to die rather than surrender. We bow our heads with deep humility and sorrow for those who were killed in the genocide of 1947 in the Districts of Muzaffarabad, Poonch, Mirpur, Rajouri Deva-Batala, parts of valley Uri, Baramulla, Shopian, Kupwara, Teethwal and other areas of erstwhile J&K State. We pray for the eternal peace for their departed souls. We further express our concern and join hands to sympathize with those less fortunate who are still facing abject poverty and suffering under sub human conditions living in refugees camp since 1947 as if in exile from their native places. On October 22, we, MJR-47, Movement for Justice for Refugees of 1947 from PoJK, vow to fight till our last breath to bring justice to our DP/Refugee brethren who have been made to suffer deprivation of basic human rights of home and hearth and on all social, educational, political, financial fields without any aid, relief & rehabilitation either from the state or Government of India for last 75 years.
(The authors are Convener and Chief Spokesman,
MJR47, Jammu).
