Kashmiris on both sides of divided line (LOC) observed Jammu Martyrs day on Tuesday to pay homage to hundreds and thousands of Muslims who on this day in 1947 were mercilessly killed by Hindu chauvinists aided and abetted by then Dogra army. The killings triggered a series of events, which eventually gave birth to Kashmir conflict that despite the passage of 70 years continues to be chief source of tension between the two neighbouring states India and Pakistan. Although the exact number of casualties in the killings that continued for two months is not known but Horace Alexander’s article on 16 January 1948 in The Spectator is much quoted; he put the number killed at 200,000. A report published in The Times, London same year says nearly 2,37,000 Muslims were systematically exterminated – unless they escaped to Pakistan along the border – by the forces of the Dogra State headed by the Maharaja in person and aided by Hindus and Sikhs. The programme of expulsion and murder carried out over three weeks between October-November 1947, had rendered nearly half a million Muslims homeless who were forced into displacement across the border into the newly created nation of Pakistan and Azad Kashmir. Idrees Kanth, a fellow at International Institute of Social History in Amsterdam, who researched the 1940s history of Kashmir says that on November 5, the Dogra Army soldiers began another organised evacuation of the Muslims but “instead of taking them to Sialkot, as they had been promised, the trucks drove them to forest hills of Rajouri districts of Jammu, where they were executed. Historians say that the less known massacre was a state-sponsored genocide intended to bring demographic change in the Muslim majority state of Jammu and Kashmir. It is quite unfortunate that there is no record available about these gruesome incidents that have taken place in the region during the horrific period of partition. Although, it is said that the records of the incidents have been deliberately destroyed to make it a lesser known massacre. Though it is a logical argument but the fact is that historians and researchers living on either sides of the line of control have not put enough efforts to unmask this great conspiracy that was put in play at that tumultuous period of time or collect a substantial evidence from the survivors of this great tragedy. Had this kind of tragedy struck in any other part of the world there would have been hue and cry all over. No tears were shed, nobody mourned or grieved over this tragedy. Ironically, no commission of inquiry was set to probe the massacre, no fact finding mission was ever sent in the region to ascertain the facts. Why this large-scale tragedy went unnoticed is a question still unanswered, however, it is high time that the government of Azad Jammu and Kashmir that claims to be a representative government of the whole State should pursue the case at international level and ask the UN to send a fact finding mission in the region to investigate the most shocking and gruesome crimes committed against Muslims of Jammu by Hindu chauvinists. Moreover, the government of Azad Kashmir should build Martyrs’ memorial in memory of the Martyrs who were put to death in the wilderness even before seeing their cherished land (Pakistan). Though the successive governments of Azad Kashmir in the past have pledged to build the memorial but practically nothing had been done except political statements.
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