By: Sardar Muhammad Parvez Khan DIO District Bagh,
It is the law of nature that just as some people get eternal life due to some good deeds, in the same way, some places and days are always remembered due to some events, and vows are renewed by holding ceremonies on such days. And one gets the courage to move towards the destination quickly, the summit of Nila Butt, eight kilometers south-east of Dhirkot at a height of seven thousand feet above sea level, is also an important event in the history of the freedom movement of Jammu and Kashmir state. This is the unique place from which on 23rd August 1947, Mujahid Sardar Muhammad Abdul Qayyum Khan declared jihad against the Dogra government and took an oath from a large number of people to join the jihad. On the one hand, the declaration of Jihad in Nila Butt was the tragic event of 13 July 1931 and the rise of the continuous struggle for independence, and on the other hand, the beginning of the armed struggle for freedom, which is still going on today, on 23 August 1947 at Nila Butt. Before the declaration of Jihad and its detailed explanation, it is important to understand the historical continuity of the Hurriyat movement in Kashmir. The state of Jammu and Kashmir, which is called the heart of Asia, is no less than a wonder on the planet. This state has often been under the rule of foreigners due to its unique beauty and special geographical position.
The darkest treaty in the history of mankind, known as the Bienama of Amritsar, was executed under which the British sold the state of Kashmir and its inhabitants to Dogra Maharaja Gulab Singh for 75 lakhs of Nanakshahi coins. The night of slavery in this state spread its horrors in such a way that the division of the sub-continent in 1947 based on the two-nation theory, instead of a few seconds of dawn and dusk changing into dawn, the state of India became India.
According to the right given to the states in the partition formula of the sub-continent, in the light of the announcement of the partition of India on June 3, 1947, the people of Kashmir organized their only representative political party, the All Jammu and Kashmir Muslim Conference. On July 19, 1947, in a meeting held in Srinagar, a resolution was passed for the state’s accession to Pakistan, as a result of which two and a half lakh Muslims of Jammu were killed by the gangsters of the RSS, a well-known armed and terrorist organization of Hindus. The declaration of Jihad by the First Mujahid Sardar Abdul Qayyum Khan from Nila Butt resulted in the liberation of many square miles of the state including Gilgit-Baltistan, which is the base camp of independence and Pakistan. It is a universal fact that if this part of the state had not been liberated under the leadership of the first Mujahid Sardar Abdul Qayyum Khan, there would have been no history of Kashmir like Hyderabad.
From the announcement of Jihad on 23 August 1947 to the declaration of ceasefire by the United Nations on 1 January 1949, the story is very long, and story after story is very interesting and amazing. It is important to mention that in February 1947, the Maharaja started deploying his troops along the border to suppress any possible movement, although the Standstill Agreement that the Maharaja made. Here it is necessary to mention something as a sample for the information of the general reader. Those who have it are well aware that movements require great preparation, planning, resources, and strategy and require disciplined training, but this movement lacked any of these requirements. The movement started when Mujahid held a meeting with some dignitaries in Bagh in early 1947 i.e. February-March, in which Syed Ali Asghar Shah, Maulvi Mir Alam of Kharal, and a few others attended the meeting. The movement against the government and its strategy was discussed. This Jihad movement started by Mujahid was supported by Allah Almighty.
It was decided in the Nila Butt meeting that this gathering of eight thousand people will go to Bagh in the form of a procession and will hold a meeting there. They reached and stayed the night in the Jama Masjid, the political struggle against the Maharaja’s government was the purpose of this meeting and this political struggle started from Nila Butt was also successful and today a large region is free. It could be said that if there was no ceasefire through conspiracy, the rest of the state would have been freed in a short time. The leadership played its role to eradicate this misconception and maintain the status of Azad Kashmir which deserves to be written in golden letters in the Azadi Kashmir movement and future generations will be proud of it. A resolution regarding the Mujahid Force was passed to break the ceasefire line by providing military training to the Kashmiri people and restarting the armed struggle for the freedom of Occupied Kashmir. Through this historic resolution, January 1, the ceasefire was rejected in 1949 because it was against the will of the Kashmiris and it could not help in the solution of the Kashmir problem. The Kashmir problem remained alive and the armed struggle began in mid-1988, which would end with its logical conclusion, the independence of Kashmir and its accession to Pakistan. The purpose of celebrating Nila Butt Day is to renew the efforts of the freedom movement started by Mujahid First Sardar Abdul Qayyum Khan. But Kashmiri is dignified and respected throughout Pakistan.
