Each year the people of Jammu and Kashmir, both in Indian Administered Kashmir and Pakistan Occupied Kashmir observe ‘Black Day’ on different dates across the most troubled border.
The first Black Day was observed on October 22, 1947, when Brigadier Akbar Khan of the newly-born Pakistan Army was entrusted with a top-secret invasion of Kashmir, the princely state, just two months after the independence of the two neighbouring countries.
Akbar Khan, a senior commander in Pakistan Army was the mastermind of the aggression of Kashmir and commanded the first-ever India-Pakistan war over Kashmir. The commander bypassed the Rawalpindi Military General Head Quarters (GHQ) when General Sir Douglas David Gracey was the C-in-C of the Pakistan Army.
The brute commander was a Second World War veteran. He was decorated by the British Army for commanding the ‘Burma Campaign’ against the Japanese invasion of South-East Asia.
Jammu and Kashmir (J&K), a landlocked disputed territory in South Asia was the prime reason for several wars and border skirmishes between India and Pakistan since the birth of the two newly independent nations in August 1947.
The war was fought between India and Pakistan over the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir from 1947 to 1948. It was the first of the four Indo-Pakistan wars fought between the two neighbours.
In 1846, after the Sikh defeat in the First Anglo-Sikh War, and upon the purchase of the region from the British under the Treaty of Amritsar, the Raja of Jammu, Gulab Singh, became the new ruler of Kashmir. As the partition unfolded, the Maharaja of Kashmir Hari Singh had signed a ‘Standstill Agreement’ with Mohammad Ali Jinnah, founder of Pakistan on August 12, 1947, two days before the formal independence of State for Muslims in India.
In reality, Jinnah signed the Standstill Agreements with all the princely states in Pakistan territory, including the Khanate of Kalat (Balochistan), Jammu and Kashmir, Gilgit-Baltistan, Bahawalpur, Chitral, Swat, Hunza, Las Bela, Kharan, Makran, and others. Unfortunately, all the agreements were deliberately flouted by Jinnah.
India also flouted several princely and protected states or unions and annexed the states without any compensation for forced accession.
According to British Raj’s agreed compliance, the princely state(s) may join any country – India or Pakistan or hold the status quo as an independent nation-state. The choice to merge was left entirely upon the rulers of the princely states.
For most of the princely states signed a Standstill Agreement with Pakistan, the military forcibly occupied the territory and coerced into signing the treaty of accession. Balochistan is one of the many examples in the post-partition history of Pakistan.
Jawaharlal Nehru had expressed doubt that the agreements signed by Jinnah would be disobeyed, but for Governor-General of Pakistan [Jinnah] confidently negated his [Nehru] suspicion.
Akbar Khan in his autobiography ‘Raiders in Kashmir’ admits that he designed a strategy under the title of “Armed Revolt inside Kashmir”.
On October 27, 1947, Jinnah ordered General David Gracey to mobilise troops into Kashmir Valley. Gracey declined with a note that all British officers had a ‘stand-down order’ from Supreme Commander Claude Auchinleck of British forces in India and Pakistan in the eventualities of war and conflict between the two countries.
Impatient Prime Minister of Pakistan Liaquat Ali Khan summoned the ambitious Brig Khan at a closed-door conference in Lahore on the tense development in Kashmir, the accession, and possible Indian military intervention.
The meeting was attended by Colonel Iskander Mirza (then defence secretary, later became Governor-General) and Chaudhri Mohammad All (then Secretary-General of Muslim League, later became Prime Minister).
With full knowledge of Jinnah, the Pakistan military mobilised thousands of barbarians from the fiercest Pashtun tribes from North-West Frontier Province (now Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) to invade Jammu and Kashmir under the command of Brig Khan.
An estimated 5,000 savage raiders armed with axes, swords, and modern rifles supplied by the Pakistan army and transport logistics were provided to capture Srinagar, the capital of Kashmir.
The raiders known as “Lashkar” (militia) went on a rampage. They plundered, looted, killed, and raped during the brutal invasion, which caused thousands of Kashmiri Pundits to flee the valley for safety and security.
At midnight on December 30, at the behest of India, a ceasefire came into effect from January 1, 1948. Pakistan accepted the fate of Jammu and Kashmir as the issue was taken over by the United Nations.
Presently, Pakistan-occupied Kashmir is known as “Azad Kashmir”, installing a subservient government to rule the valley. The Azad Kashmir’s puppet government have always been loyal to Rawalpindi GHQ, the powerhouse.
The invasion ended in a stalemate after the United Nations (UN) intervened. Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan accepted the UN’s peace plan.
Liaquat Ali Khan handed over the reins of the military to General Ayub Khan as Chief of Army Staff (COAS) after General Douglas Gracey retired on January 16, 1951, which surprised most Pakistanis without knowing the palace intrigues.
General Gracey at a farewell meeting warned Pakistan Prime Minister that Major General Akbar Khan believes in the idealism of Turkey’s Kemal Ataturk, a nationalist secularist. Obviously, Akbar Khan fell from the grace of the Muslim League government.
A boastful character, the hero of the raiders of Kashmir was furious for striking him down from army chief, to avenge the insult he conspired against the state in 1951.
In connivance with several military officers, the Communist Party of Pakistan (CCP), some Marxist intellectuals and a few civil officers including a police officer to overthrow the regime in Karachi (then capital of Pakistan) was unearthed by British intelligence and were thrown into prison for treason.
Since the stalemate in 1948, Pakistan systematically distorted the history of Jammu and Kashmir. The false narratives are injected into school textbooks, and also found documented in national museums and archives. Pakistan got away with it. Rest is history!
Saleem Samad, is an independent journalist, media rights defender, recipient of Ashoka Fellowship and Hellman-Hammett Award. He could be reached at <saleemsamad@hotmail.com>; Twitter @saleemsamad.
