ISLAMABAD — The Pakistan Army on Tuesday took to Twitter to pay tribute to the people who were killed in different parts of Jammu during the first week of November in 1947.
Maj Gen Asif Ghafoor, the director general of Army’s media wing, hailed the Kashmiri victims of November 6, 1947 and said “their great sacrifices shall accrue result.”
He said the political struggle of the Kashmiri people for the legitimate right of self determination can never be suppressed.
Pakistan-controlled Kashmir (PcK) ‘President’ Sardar Muhammad Masood Khan and ‘Prime Minister’ Raja Farooq Haider Khan called the first week of November “the bleakest chapter” of the Kashmir struggle.
Jammu Massacre Most Barbaric In Human History, Says Geelani; Mirwaiz, Malik Also Pay Tributes, Term Killings ‘Ugly Blot On Humanity’
Chairmen of both factions of Hurriyat Conference and JKLF on Tuesday paid rich tributes to Jammu martyrs who were massacred on November 6, 1947.
Syed Ali Geelani, chairman of Hurriyat Conference (G), in a statement issued termed the Jammu Massacre of 1947 as the worst tragedy. He said that slaughtering lakhs of Muslims “jointly by Dogra army, Indian forces, Hindutwa fascist groups like RSS and Shivsena and other communal forces” is a brazen and most barbaric incident human history can ever come across.
“All the areas of Jammu region witnessed the ugliest and most brutal human carnage and all streets and fields of Jammu region were flooded with blood and flesh of Muslims,” he said.
Hurriyat (G) chairman said that under a deep and well-knit conspiracy, it was announced that those willing to go to Pakistan are advised to assemble in Jammu police lines. He said Hari Singh and his troops had unleashed a reign of terror and Muslim population was not only traumatized but terrified as well and the announcement to send them to Pakistan served a cool breeze and a great sight of relief for them.
Geelani said the people assembled in the said venue along with their families including women and kids. “They were boarded in trucks to be taken to Samba. On reaching halfway near a narrow lane, they were de-boarded, young and beautiful females were taken away and the rest of people including kids were pumped with bullets. These blood thirsty vultures did not stop there but the vandalism and bloodshed continued for months. Reports of loot, arson, gutting down houses unabated killings poured in from every city and town of Jammu province. Females were molested and gang-raped, some of them jumped in river Chenab to save their chastity and honour,” he said.
Even the daughter of Chaudhary Ghulam Abbas was not speared and was kidnapped, the pro-freedom leader said in the statement.
“Although the tallest political personality of Kashmir was holding the authority and chair of administrator and all this butchery was being carried out under his glaring eyes but he was more concerned and worried about his own chair,” he said.
“Since that day, our bloodshed is continuing,” Geelani said, adding, “The people at the helm of affairs at that time were acting as deaf mute spectators focused only on their personal and family gains.”
Meanwhile, a prayer meeting was held at Hurriyat (G) headquarters in favour of martyrs of Jammu Massacre, the statement said.
In a statement, Chairman Hurriyat Conference (M) Mirwaiz Umar Farooq while paying rich tributes to Jammu Martyrs said, “The ethnic cleansing of the Muslims including men, women and children that took place on this day 70 years ago is an extremely painful chapter in the history of our freedom struggle besides an eye-opener for the entire humanity across the globe.”
“Exactly 70 years ago in Jammu, the gruesome murder of lakhs of members of a particular community with a sole aim of changing the demography of the region was an abhorring act and it was done in a systematic and planned manner,” he said.
Mirwaiz termed the great sacrifices offered by the lakhs of Muslims in Jammu region as a biggest asset to the ongoing movement of right to self-determination. The sacrifices rendered by the lakhs of people will be written in the J&K’s history with golden letters and these martyrs will always be remembered for their priceless sacrifice for a great and sacred cause, he said.
Hurriyat (M) chairman said the hearts of the people of Kashmir and Jammu region especially Chenab and Doda Valley beat in unison as “our political aspirations are one, a fact which can’t be ignored”.
Muhammad Yasin Malik, chief of the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JLKF), in a statement said the massacre of lakhs of Muslims at Jammu on 6 November 1947 is “an ugly blot on the face of humanity and the blackest day of our human history”.
“The colonial and fascist mindset that carried out Jammu genocide in 1947 is even today busy in massacring Kashmiri youth without any remorse or regret,” Malik said.
“Jammu massacre of 1947 not only reminds us of the brutal and criminal face of fascism but also the criminal silence of the international community exposing its duplicity and double standards vis-a-vis humans and humanity,” Yasin Malik said adding that the people who were massacred at Jammu in 1947 stood for the freedom of Jammu Kashmir.
“The sacrifices of Jammu Muslims for freedom of Jammu Kashmir are a glorious page of our resistance,” he said.