[This post is dedicated to a young man from Jammu and Kashmir who laid down his life for India. ]
The story goes back to 1947 when the first war was fought between India and Pakistan. When India and Pakistan both got separated by Radcliffe line, the ruler of Jammu and Kashmir Hari Singh was not sure whether to join the Indian union or either opt for Pakistan. Instead , he decided to sign a standstill agreement with India and Pakistan . Only Pakistan signed that agreement.
In the mean time communal clashes were still going on in the whole country as well in the state of J & K which is now a UT and Ladakh (which was part of J & K) has become a separate UT . The Pakistan tribals along the border were using hit and run tactics to destabilise the J & K armed forces to enter the state. Hari Singh tried to convince the Pakistan leadership to stop the raids but to no avail.
On 22 October, 1947 the Pakistan army backed tribals entered the state of J & K and started plundering, looting , killing and raping the women. Hari singh was in trouble as he was not in a position to curb the attack by using his small army which was very small in size compared to the invaders. He took decision to make a call to Nehru, the then PM of India to help him out of this trouble. Nehru asked him to sign the instrument of accession with India . Hari Singh signed the agreement and soon the Indian Army was airlifted to Kashmir and the invaders were thwarted back but at the cost of lives of our soldiers and people of J and K.
Till Indian army reached Srinagar, the local Kashmiris were trying their level best to fight back the invaders from Pakistan. Here comes the story of a daring and young Kashmiri boy who is considered as a Martyr by Indian Army and people of J & K . The account of his bravery has been given in the book ' Halfway to Freedom' by Margaret Bourke White.
She wrote : "Mir Maqbool Sherwani had been a co-worker of Sheikh Abdullah in the democratic movement, and like Abdullah he had preached the need for religious unity in the fight for people’s rights. He must have been a sort of Robin Hood character, from the stories the townspeople told me, championing peasants who could not pay their exorbitant taxes, pitching into the police when he found them beating up some luckless victim, bolstering up the resistance of the people against their many oppressions. When the tribesmen invaded Kashmir and terrorized the countryside, Sherwani, who know every footpath in the Valley, began working behind the lines, keeping up the morale of the besieged villagers, urging them to resist and to stick together regardless of whether they were Hindu, Sikh, or Muslim, assuring them that help from the Indian Army and People’s Militia was on the way. Three times by skilfully planted rumours he decoyed bands of tribesmen and got them surrounded and captured by Indian infantry. But the fourth time he was captured himself. The tribesmen took Sherwani to the stoop of a little apple shop in the town square of Baramula, and the terrified townspeople were driven into the square in front of him with the butts of rifles. Knowing Sherwani’s popularity with the people, his captors ordered him to make a public announcement that joining Pakistan was the best solution for Muslims. When he refused, he was lashed to the porch posts with ropes, his arms spread out in the shape of a cross, and he was told he must shout, 'Pakistan Zindabad: Sher-i-Kashmir murdabad. They drove nails through the palms of Sherwani’s hands. On his forehead they pressed a jagged piece of tin and wrote on it: ‘The punishment of a traitor is death.’ Once more Sherwani cried out, ‘Victory to Hindu-Muslim unity’, and fourteen tribesmen shot bullets into his body. "
The Indian army salutes Sherwani every year on October 22 to remember his sacrifice for the country. Whatever might be the differences , the people of Jammu and Kashmir will always be with India by letter and spirit.
Reference : 'Halfway to Freedom' by Margaret Bourke White.
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