Lt Gen P S Mehta (Retd)
Sikhs of J&K have been on the forefront ever since the erstwhile Empire of Maharaja Ranjit Singh. They have made innumerable sacrifices towards the service of the State and the Country despite being a miniscule minority even till today. In the 1947 Kabalis raid on J&K nearly one lakh Sikhs including their family’ members sacrificed their lives in the defense of their motherland. However, unfortunately there does not exist any official data / record of the perished. What exists are certain numbers /names compiled by some local Sikh authors / eye witnesses albeit grossly inadequate since this has been compiled based on word of mouth tales.This gap needs to be filled officially and recorded for posterity.
On 22 Oct 1947 Sikhs along with their families retreating from the area of Muzaffarabad towards Poonch, Baramulla and on to Budgam faced extreme brutalities to include mass rapes, loot, plunder and deaths by the Kabalis. Sikhs fought with whatever weapons they had at their disposal to include muzzle loading rifles, shot guns, swords, spears and some captured rifles of the slain Kabalis. They managed to delay the advance of the Kabalis from Muzaffarabad to Baramulla for nearly four days from 22nd to 26th Oct 1947. There after up to 03 Nov 1947 from Baramulla to Srinagar by organizing hastily organized defenses (morchas) to engage the Kabalis, wherein they also setup improvised cannons made of wood and the propeller shafts of trucks (TMB) largely the brain child of some ex-servicemen and technicians amongst whom the names of S. Gian Singh Fauji and S. Ujjagar Singh Mistry are prominent. However with very little ammunition they could not engageand keep the enemy at bay forlonger periods of time, but did manage to buy vital time to make do the escape of their elders and women folk. There was desperation in the air. While engaging the Kabali’s they lost many of their loved ones and in order not to compromise the honour of their women folk at the hands of the invaders they even resorted to killing their own daughters and women. Some women folk jumped in to River Jhelum and pyres of their family members to escape humiliation and torture.Sadly many of them were forcibly taken by Kabalis to the camps beyond Muzaffarabad never to return again.
Ten Lashkars comprising 1000 kabalis each of tribals from the Northwest Frontiers (Masood and Pashtun Muslims) armed with rifles and machine guns were mobilized for the operations in J&K and were formed into groups to operate under directions / control of Pakistan Army personnel accompanying them, disguised in civil clothes. Maj Gen Akbar alias’ ‘Tariq’ was made the overall commander. These mercenaries were paid by Pakistani Government, besides the directions to retain the war booty that they lay their hands on,including women. The concept formed for this invasion code named ‘Operation Gulmarg’ was:-
HINDU KA ZARR …. (Money and women)
SIKH KA SAAR…. (Heads of the Sikhs)
MUSALMAN KA GHAR … (Food and Support)
The mission spelt out to the raiderswas to capture Maharaja Hari Singh’s Palace in Srinagar and the Srinagar Airstrip by 26th October 1947 (the day of Eid Festival).The directions were explicit to kill the Sikhs as it was correctly appreciated to be the community which would fight and resist the Kabalis.The Sikhs fought the Kabalis from hastily organized morchas set up in buildings,Gurudwaras and surrounding hills / raised grounds. Some of the prominent morchas those were established were Gurudwara Chatti Padshahi Naloochi Muzaffarabad, village Domel, Dhana, Satarna, Choora, Atna, Ichahama and Kanahama. Sikhs kept fighting retrograde battles only to be overwhelmed by sheer enemy number and superior fire power. Many who survived managed to reach Srinagar safely. However the delay imposed by the action of the Sikhs not only saved Srinagar town, but also the strategic Srinagar Airstrip from falling into the hands of the invaders. Thestime gained facilitated the Indian Army to land on 27th Oct at the uncaptured Srinagar Airstrip.
Ironically the actions and sacrifices of the Sikhs were never recognized by the State or India.The Sikhs who were on the run from Muzaffarabad were not allowed to stay in Srinagar, but were unceremoniously asked to move to Jammu Province by Sheikh Abdullah. There was a grand design to move the Sikh community out of J&K for good to Delhi, Dehradun and Chakrata as a political manoeuver by Sheikh Abdullah and Pandit Nehru. The Sikhs who were uprooted from Baramulla and Uri and later returned back to their villages were given very meagre support comprising four logs of deodar trees and Rs 200 as Loan per family to reconstruct their burnt houses. Letters to return these loans were received by these Sikhs till as late as 1980’s. Even after independence Sikhs have continued to face the wrath of Kashmiri Muslims (KMs) as also Kashmiri Pundits (KPs) all along. KMs and Sikhs were always inimical towards each other and could not look eye to eye due to distrust till as late as 1980s. However, after Operation Blue Star (1984) the KMs changed their attitude and adopted a softer approach towards the Sikhs probably at the behest of Pakistan.
Sikhs lost their lands to the tillers under the absurd Revenue Act framed by Sheikh Abdullah aimed at compensating the KM tillers by robbing the Sikh of their properties. Unfortunately this act or SRO was signed by non-other than Dr Karan Singh the then Wazir e Azam of J&K without due deliberation towards the affected communities. Despite this, the recently enacted Roshini Act by local Kashmiri political parties in a blatant move to mutate Forest and Government land in favour of KMs both in Kashmir and Jammu Divisions in a bid to enlarge the arc of Muslim demography in Jammu Division besides helping their poorer sections illegally further upset the political balance and harmony amongst the communities.
The Sikhs have continued to be systematically left out of the Government announced schemes,even after reorganization of the State into UTs for reasons best known to the State and Central Governments,naming a few:-
(a) Non-inclusion of Sikhs in the 4% Quota Reservation for Government jobs as part of the Pahari community on the basis of the common language, and
(b) Non-inclusion of a Sikh member in the JK UT Public Service Commission announced recently.
Sikhs who have proved to be the saviors of Kashmir during the Kabali raid instead of being rewarded have been targeted by all for reasons beyond comprehension. Sikhs even stood the ground and did not migrate from the valley over the last three decades of insurgency despite being targeted by the terrorists. Like true Indian Nationals Sikh stayed back as the symbols of Indian community holding the Tiranga sky high and denying the Pakistani agenda of Kashmir being a pure Muslim state. Its time Delhi realizes their sacrifices and includes them with dignity in all schemes and policies being formulated in the JKUT. Lastly the Draconian Revenue Act which took away most of the landed property needs to be revisited urgently.
(The author is former GOC of a Strike Corps, Political & Military Advisor Sainik Samaaj Party)
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