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Tribal Invasion: An American Reportage
Margaret Bourke-White was a correspondent and photographer with American magazine LIFE. She authored many books, based on her coverage of Africa, England, France, China, Russia, Italy and Germany during the Second World War. Bourke-White also covered tribal invasion of J&K in 1947-48. Her reportage on Kashmir - "Democracy in the Himalayas' and 'Struggle for Kashmir' form part of her book on India 'Halfway to Freedom' (New York, 1949).
The 'Struggle for Kashmir' deals specifically with Raiders' invasion. Bourke-White was in Pakistan when invasion was beginning. Pakistan government was reluctant to let her cross into Kashmir. They feared that an upright journalist like Bourke-White would not hesitate to tell the world truth about Pakistan's complicity in the invasion. Pakistanis trotted out excuses to put her off saying, 'there was nothing to photograph', 'it was very dangerous for a woman,' 'Tribesmen abducted women'. When she insisted on visiting places which were bases for invasion local officials escorting her would drive her over 'picturesque but deserted roads to the border of Kashmir and show her 'a breathtaking vista of mountain scenery which had fine picture-postcard value but little news value'.
On occasions Bourke-White was able to slip out unescorted and meet tribal Pashtun invaders. She narrates her conversation with one Invader leader, Badsha Gul of Mohmand tribe. Gul had brought one thousand tribals, a convoy of trucks and ammunition for invasion of Kashmir. The trucks and buses would at times come back within a day or two "bursting with loot, only to return to Kashmir with more tribesmen, to repeat their indiscriminate "liberating" - and terrorising of Hindu, Sikh, and Muslim villagers alike".
About the buses and lorries Bourke-White writes "taxi companies (in Rawalpindi) were donating twenty or ten or a couple of trucks each, the number I suppose depending on the intensity with which the owner believed the Muslims in Kashmir needed 'rescuing'.
Bourke-White debunked the myths that arms for the invasion came from tribesmen themselves, some of whom owned arms factories. She writes, "I photographed one of the larger of these munition works, belonging to the Afridi tribe. It was a rock-bound shack where five men worked. Since it took one man a month to make a rifle, it is doubtful whether all the shacks on the North-West Frontier would account for more than a fraction of the equipment with which the tribesmen poured into Kashmir during the fall of '47. Certainly these miniature ballistics establishment would hardly explain the mortars, other heavy modern weapons, and the two aeroplanes with which the invaders were equipped".
In an eyewitness account about the delivery of arms she writes, "In Pakistan towns close to the border, arms were handed out before daylight to tribesmen directly from the front steps of the Muslim League headquarters".
She makes revelations e.g. 'From Pakistan's Capital a train loaded with medical supplies and volunteer personnel left every Wednesday morning for the Kashmir frontier, "some of the 'Azad Kashmir' soldiers, taken as PoWs by the Indian army, were found to have pay books of the Pakistan Army in their pockets'.
While Bourke-White was still in Abottabad she had the opportunity to meet the nuns from St. Joseph Hospital in Baramulla who survived the carnage. They had escaped over the border at dawn. A nurse gave her a detailed description of how raiders ransacked the babies' ward on the Convent grounds. She said, "the tribesmen began smashing up X-Ray equipment, throwing medicine bottles to the ground, ripping the statuettes of saints out of the chapel, and shooting up the place generally. Two patients were killed: an Englishman and his wife who were vacationing at the mission were murdered; and two nuns were shot".
For nine days Baramulla witnessed reign of terror under the forces of occupation. About the situation in the Convent Bourke-White records, "The nuns, their hospital patients, and a few stray towns people who had taken refugee at the mission were herded into a single dormitory and kept under rifle guard. On one of these days, after an air attack from the Indian Army had left the tribesmen in a particularly escited and nervous mood, six of the nuns were brought out and lined upto be shot. It was the accident that one of them had a conspicuous gold tooth that saved the sisters. One of the riflemen wanted to get that tooth, before his colleagues had a chance at it. In the scuffle that followed, one of their chiefs arrived; he had enough vision to realise that shooting nuns was not the thing to do, even in an invasion, and the nuns were saved".
Bourke-White visited Baramulla soon after its liberation by Indian forces. She records, "The once lovely town, straddling the Jhelum River at the gateway to the Valley, was as heaped with rubble and blackened with fire as those battered Jewels of Italian towns through which many of us moved during our war in Italy...the deserted convent on the hill was badly defaced and littered...We made our way into the ravaged Chapel, Wading through the mass of torn hymnbooks and broken sacred statuary. The altar was deep in rubble". She also gives a graphic account of how martyr Maqbool Sherwani was killed by Pakistanis. Bourke-White met Sherwani's father and brothers. On seeing Sherwani's photograph Bourke-White notes, "Even the soft-focus effect of the fuzzy studio portrait could not erase the intensity of the eyes and the look of strength in the high forehead". (Sentinel Research Bureau)
Raiders' Evidence
Major General Mohammad Akbar Khan was in active service in the Pakistan Army in October 1947. He commanded the raiders under the pseudonym "General Tariq". Excerpts of his interview published in the "Defence Journal" (Karachi, June-July, 1985) are reproduced below:
Planning of the Invasion:
"A few weeks after partition, I was asked by Mian Iftikharuddin on behalf of Liaquat Ali Khan (Prime Minister of Pakistan) to prepare a plan for action in Kashmir. I found that the Army was holding 4,000 rifles for the civil police. If these could be given to the locals an armed uprising in Kashmir could be organised at suitable places, I wrote a plan on this basis and gave it to Mian Iftikharuddin. I was called to a meeting with Liaquat Ali Khan at Lahore where the plan was adopted, responsibilities alloted and orders issued. Everything was to be kept secret from the Army. In September the 4,000 rifles were issued at various places and the first shots were exchanged with the Maharaja's troops and the movement gathered weight.
He (Khurshid Anwar) had joined the Muslim League and he had been appointed commander of the Muslim League National Guards. In September 1947, when the Prime Minister launched the movement of the Kashmir "struggle" Khurshid Anwar was appointed Commander of the Northern Sector. Khurshid Anwar then went to Peshawar and with the apparent help of Khan Qayyum Khan raised the Lashkar which assembled at Abbottabad... Thereafter he (Khan Qayyum Khan) continued to take active interest in Kashmir and helped with the tribal Lashkars through the Kashmir operations."
On Looting of Non-Muslims:
"It was part of their (Pakistan Govt.) agreement with Major Khurshid Anwar of the Muslim League National Guards who was their leader that they would loot non-Muslims. They had no other renumeration". Conclusions drawn: Once a Sufferer, always a SAFFERER. (Source: kpindia, kpnetwork)
Source: Kashmir Sentinel
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The tribal Invasion in Kashmir
Historians have a duty to transfer truth to the posterity
FACTS ABOUT HISTORY
BARRISTER HAMID BASHANI
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In the fall of 1947, the people of Jammu and Kashmir witnessed many tragic events. The tribal invasion was one of the most tragic. It was an earth shattering event. This single event turned the course of history in the Indian sub-continent. It was a deep wound which is still bleeding. It becomes fresh and painful when some an intellectual in Kashmir tries to deny or distort this event. I have read a couple of such articles in Srinagar’s newspapers in the past couple of weeks. There could be two reasons for the denial or distortion of these events: one, lack of knowledge of these historical events; and two, intellectual dishonesty. It is the responsibility of Kashmiri intellectuals and writers to transfer the correct narratives of our history for posterity and to keep the record of our history straight. I very often write about this issue in my columns, and whenever I do so I feel like blood is dripping from my pen. I feel like I am hearing the cries of those innocent women who were robed, raped, kidnapped, and killed by the raiders. I pause and mourn for them. I feel deeply sorry. These events not only effected our past, but they also effected our present and future. These events gave birth to the Kashmir issue, a constant threat for peace in the Indian sub-continent. Therefore, it is very important to clarify the confusions around these events.
The first confusion is that the tribals invaded Kashmir of their own accord to help their Muslim brothers and sisters against the oppressive regime of Maharaja Hari Sing. The second confusion is that the tribes were not involved in loot, rape, and destruction of the properties. The third confusion is that the tribes had no connection with the Pakistan military or rulers of that time. The fourth confusion is that there were no tribesmen at all, but that these fighters were actually from Poonch and Jammu who were Mujahidin, local tribes, and former military personnel from the British army. There are many books and documents on these four confusions. We also have testimonials of several people who were part of these events. But due to the limitations of this newspaper article, I will quote only those who played a fundamental role in those events; those who were an important part of the government of Pakistan and Military at that time. Among those who planned, lead, and financed the tribal invasion the most prominent was Sardar Shoukut Hayat Khan. Sardar was one of the closest confidants of Muhammad Ali Jinnah and a top leader of the Muslim League, a powerful ruling party at that time. Sardar spoke several times in the public as well as in the press about the tribal invasion of 1947.His detailed interview on this subject was published in Daily Jang, London, in April 1995. In his famous book, The Nation that Lost its Soul, Shoukut Hayat Khan has written in detail about the tribal raid in Kashmir. On page 278 of this book, he wrote that he was appointed Supervisor of the Kashmir operation. He requested Brigadier Akbar Khan and Brigadier Sher Khan to provide him with their services. Both officers belonged to 6/13 Frontier Force at that time. They also requested the services of Colonel Dara, Kayani, and Khanzada along with guns from Lahore fort. On page 218 he wrote that Minister of Treasury, Ghulam Muhammad, had named Khurshid Anwar for the command of this operation. Khurshid was a reserve officer in the Railway battalion and former National Guard of Muslim League. His only qualification was that he was the first cousin of Minister Ghulam Muhammad. Shoukut Hayat Khan opposed his nomination, but he was appointed because Minister Ghulam Muhammad and Prime Minister Lyaqut Ali Khan insisted on it. Three hundred thousand rupees were given to them from the treasury by Ghulam Muhammad for this operation. They gathered the tribesmen in Sawat and fixed a date on which to attack Kashmir. Shoukut Hayat Khan stayed at the border of Muzaffarabad, Kashmir. He was not allowed to go further because he was a minister of the Pakistan government and did not want to be seen in Kashmir, because this war had to be presented as a peoples’ rebellion against Maharaja Kashmir. Sardar writes that the tribal men refused to listen to Khurshid Anwar when they arrived in Baramullah. They asked Khurshid to distribute the three hundred thousand rupees. Khurshid refused to hand them the money because that amount had been given for the whole operation. At that point the tribesmen got angry and started looting and plundering. They took jewelry from the local women, looted bazaars and houses, and even kidnapped and raped several women. This book written by a government minister and close associate of Mr. Jinnah clearly states that the tribes did not raid Kashmir on their own initiative. They were brought into Kashmir, the Pakistan government and Military led and financed this operation, and tribes were involved in pillaging. If this proof is not enough, then I would like to draw your attention towards Major Hamayun Ameen’s book, The War of Lost Opportunities. This book is considered a reliable source in the military circles of Pakistan. In this book, Major Ameen writes that Mr. Jinnah deputed the responsibility of Kashmir to Prime Minister Lyaqat Ali Khan. Lyaqut Ali gave this task to IftiKhar-ud-Din, who in turn consulted Sardar Shoukut Hayat and Brigadier Akbar Khan. A meeting was held on this issue in Lahore which was presided over by Prime Minister Lyaqut Ali Khan. In this meeting, decisions were made about the impending Kashmir operation. Major Amen writes that there were three fundamental parties in the Kashmir operation: Muslim league leaders like Sardar Shoukut Hyat, Iftikhar- ud-Din, and Khurshid Anwer; the tribal men; and Brigadier Akbar Khan. The Brigadier was in charge of the weapons and equipment department at the General Military Headquarters, Rawalpindi. He was asked to arm the tribal raiders. He was asked to use all the means at his disposal without letting the British officer, who was commander of the Army at that time, know. Major Ameen writes that the tribal men were brought from the North West Frontier Province in Government trucks to Abbottabad to launch a raid in Kashmir under the command of Khurshid Anwer. Some of the facts of Major Ameen’s book are reinforced in Brigadier Akbar’s book, Raiders in Kashmir. But the most reliable source on this count is Air Marshal Asghar Khan. Mr. Asghar Khan wrote in his book that he personally participated in the Kashmir invasion. He also wrote that his brother, Major Aslam Khan, was leading the Pakistan Military and tribesmen in Muzafferabad sector. These sources from the Pakistan military and government circles clearly accept the fact that the tribes were brought to fight under the command of Pakistan military. Some of the tribesmen were also handed over to the former military men in Pooch to fight against the Dogra army there. They did not go to Kashmir to help their brothers and sisters who were in need. They were hired to fight, and their main motives were money and war booty. Apart from this unchallengeable evidence, we also have testimonials of the people who have been part of these events. The Azad Kashmiri leaders who participated and, in some cases, led these events publicly admitted to the tribal invasion and looting in Kashmir. Among them the founder President of Azad Kashmir Sardar Ibrahim Khan and Justice Yusuf Saraf are prominent. Some tribesmen who participated in this operation are still alive in Waziristan. They admit to having been brought by Pakistan military officers in military trucks to fight in Kashmir.
the PA isn't even in Balochistan and hasn't been for some years.....and even if they were, Balochistan is a Province of Pakistan - not a disputed or separate territory.therefore your 'comparison' (one i've seen so many times I've lost count) -- is INVALID. sorry.
