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| Mirpur Massacre of Hindus and Sikhs - 1947 |
By: Arti Agarwal - Writer, Researcher, Author, Data Analyst.
Mirpur Massacre of Hindus and Sikhs – 1947
- Perpetrator: Pakistan Army, Muslim insurgents and Afghan tribesmen
- Date: 25-27 November, 1947
- Number: At least 20,000 Hindus and Sikhs were brutally murdered, around 3000 were severely injured, and another 5000 were taken as prisoners. At least 5000 women and girls were raped.
In the spring of 1947, persecution of Hindus and Sikhs in Punjab had already started, in anticipation of the partition of India. The severity of hate crimes against Hindus increased from August 1947, leading to scores of Hindus and Sikhs migrating from Punjab into Mirpur. In view of the increasing tension in Kashmir, Maharaja Hari Singh imposed marshal law. The Poonch Muslims wanted Kashmir to accept the offer of accession to Pakistan.
Under the leadership of Abdul Qayyum, rebel groups organized themselves in Kashmir, comprising Muslims who wanted Kashmir to be a part of Pakistan. It comprised many ex-military soldiers of Poonch who had fought for the British in World War 2. Most of these rebels left their families in western Punjab, in Pakistan, and came back with renewed arms and ammunition. There was a clear agenda to wreak havoc in Kashmir.
The Dogra troops of Kashmir countered the insurgents in the months of September, for which they were criticized as persecuting Muslims in the state. This argument is quite vacant since the actions of the troops were against rebels who wanted to forcibly bend the government into merging with Pakistan and were taking over cities under their rule.
During the months of September and October, there was influx of Hindu and Sikh refugees from Pakistan, and also armed Muslim insurgents and Afghan tribals. The tribals from the Afghan frontier belonged to the no-man’s land near the Durand’s line, who were not governed even by the British, as the latter failed to control them—the Wahsuds, Afridis, Wazirs, etc. They were experts in military craft and knew how to operate modern military machinery as well. They poured into the Kashmir valley in fleets of lorries, numbering more than 5000 men and 300 lorries initially. Their raids were far more brutal. They finished everyone in their path. The city of Barahmullah faced this brutal onslaught. Out of the 14,000 population, only 1000 remained after the massacre in Barahmullah.
MAHARAJA HARI SINGH – THE LAST HINDU KING OF KASHMIR
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| Maharaja Hari Singh |
Upon turbulence in Kashmir in October 1947, Maharaja Hari Singh made an urgent appeal to the government of India to send troops to defend the land and the people of Kashmir. He soon left for Jammu by road. Nehru and Lord Mountbatten made it clear that they would not send aid until the Maharaja signed the instrument of accession.
The instrument of accession was signed on October 27, 1947, making Kashmir a part of India. What followed was carnage against the Hindus and Sikhs in Mirpur, which is located on the border of Pakistan and Kashmir, now a part of “Azad” Kashmir, a part of Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (POK).
MIRPUR UNDER ATTACK
Following the accession of Kashmir to India, there was a rapid influx of militant rebels, Afghan tribals, and the Pakistan army into Mirpur, which had a huge number of Hindu and Sikh refugees as well. Houses were set on fire, and the onslaught was so brutal that the Indian and Kashmir armies could not respond proportionately to the attack quickly enough.
“By November 25, 1947, there were nearly twenty five thousand Hindus and Sikhs living in Mirpur. During the city’s capture, close to twenty-five hundred were killed in the infernos that erupted due to Pakistani artillery fire. Another twenty-five hundred escaped with the retreating Jammu and Kashmir army. The remaining twenty thousand were arrested by the invading Pakistani army and the Pathans and marched in a procession towards Alibeg. Along the way, the Pakistanis and Pathans killed about ten thousand of the captured Hindu and Sikh men and kidnapped over five thousand girls and young women. About five thousand Hindus and Sikhs who survived the twenty-mile trek by foot to Alibeg were quickly imprisoned.”
Forgotten Atrocities: Memoirs of a Survivor of the 1947 Partition of India
The carnage against non-Muslims was widespread in many areas of Kashmir, though Mirpur faced the highest death toll.
Whereas the migration of the Muslims from the Jammu area was quite impressive, the beleaguered non-Muslims in Bhimber, Rajauri, Kotli, Mirpur, and Deva Vatala had to face total annihilation in the early stages of occupation by elements coming from Pakistan. In particular, the town of Mirpur saw the liquidation of over twenty thousand non-Muslims on and after 25 November 1947 out of a total of twenty-five thousand, inclusive of refugees, who had taken shelter there from other areas.
Jammu and Kashmir
The Alibeg Gurudwara Sahib was converted into a prison where all the escaping refugees were captured and later slain one by one. To avoid rape and sexual crimes, women took their own lives with poison pills. Schoolgirls in a hostel run by Arya Samaj were asked to jump into a well, to save them from violation by the invading army. The hostel superintendent also committed suicide by jumping into the well. The women and girls of Mirpur continued the age-old tradition of Johar to escape the Islamists.
The Muslim rebels emptied the homes of all wealth. Billions of worth of gold and jewelry were looted and plundered after the massacre of the people.
There were only 1600 survivors from the prison of Alibeg, rescued by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in March 1948. By 1951, only 791 Hindus and Sikhs remained in the entire region of “Azad Kashmir”, which was initially home to 114,000 Hindus and Sikhs. The refugees from the massacre are refugees to this day, as they could never go back to their homes and hearts. No human rights organization has recognized this systematic ethnic cleansing of Hindus and Sikhs in the Kashmir valley during the Partition of India.
Courtesy: Hindu Genocide
References:
- Forgotten Atrocities: Memoirs of a Survivor of the 1947 Partition of India by Bal K Gupta
- Maharaja Hari Singh’s Letter to Mountbatten
- November 25, 1947 Mirpur massacre: An ill-fated day that reminds us of injustice and infringement, brutality and bloodshed
- Jammu and Kashmir by Jyoti Bhusan Das Gupta
- Naked Dance of Death at Mirpur
