October 1947 was a bloody month for Kashmir. Commentators and journalists have written about the movement of raiders (kabailis or tribal lashkars) from Pakistan on 22 October 1947, assisted by Pakistani soldiers in civilian clothes, along the Rawalpindi-Murree-Muzaffarabad-Baramulla Road. They reached Baramulla on 25 October, which was captured the same day.
Baramulla to Srinagar is about 54 km. Srinagar was, thus, within reach of the lashkars. What happened after 25 October? Why couldn’t the lashkars reach Srinagar before the arrival of the Indian troops on 27 October?
Why did the Pakistani attempt to forcibly take Kashmir to fail in October 1947?
Once the lashkars reached Baramulla, they lost control and indulged in an orgy of killing and looting. Several writers and journalists, including western journalists, have written about killings in Baramulla including at St. Joseph’s College, where “nuns, priests and congregation, including patients in the hospital, were slaughtered” while “a small number of Europeans”, were amongst those that met their deaths at the hands of the lashkars. Charles Chevenix Trench wrote in The Frontier Scouts (1985) (taken from the internet), “In October 1947... tribal lashkars hastened in lorries – undoubtedly with official logistic support – into Kashmir... It seemed that nothing could stop these hordes of tribesmen from taking Srinagar with its vital airfield. Indeed nothing did, but their own greed. The Mahsuds, in particular, stopped to loot, rape and murder”.
On the morning of 27 October, following the accession of Jammu & Kashmir, when Indian troops reached Srinagar airfield, tribal forces were still at Baramulla, harassing, looting and killing people.
Wars, conflicts and the Simla Agreement
The Karachi Agreement of 1949 was signed by the military representatives of India and Pakistan, supervised by the United Nations Commission for India and Pakistan, establishing a cease-fire line in Kashmir. This, however, did not stop Pakistan. Another war began in 1965 following Pakistan's Operation Gibraltar, to infiltrate forces into Jammu and Kashmir to precipitate an insurgency against Indian rule. The 1965 war is also called the Second Kashmir War. Following the Indo-Pak war of 1971, the Simla Agreement was signed by India’s Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and President Zulfikar Ali Bhutto of Pakistan on 2 July 1972. It formally established the Line of Control between the two nations; both countries resolved to maintain its sanctity and settle their differences by peaceful means through bilateral negotiations.
Even though both countries agreed that “neither side shall unilaterally alter the situation”, in 1999, an armed conflict between India and Pakistan broke out again in Kargil, when Pakistani troops, disguised as Kashmiri militants, infiltrated into positions on the Indian side of the LoC. Pakistan repeated the fiction of blaming “independent Kashmiri insurgents” for the fighting, but was unsuccessful in changing the status quo. The people of Jammu & Kashmir have been facing the brunt of terrorism and extremism sponsored from across the border for over three decades.
1989–1990 exodus of Kashmiri Pandits
In Hindu mythology, Kashyapa, son of Marichi, son of Brahma, cut a gap in the hills at Baramulla (Varaha-mula) and asked Brahmins to settle there once the lake had been drained. Kashmir is home to Buddhist stupas dating 5th century; King Lalitaditya built Martand Sun Temple, and the Shankaracharya temple in Srinagar. Poets and scholars flourished here, and following the conquest of Kashmir by Emperor Akbar in 1586 AD, Srinagar became known for its famed gardens built by his son, Emperor Jahangir.
In 1990, between 300,000-600,000 Kashmiri Pandits lived in the Kashmir valley. A culture of communal harmony and religious syncretism, Kashmiriyat, had kept the Hindu and Muslim communities bound together through joint celebrations of festivals, language, cuisine and a common love for Kashmir.
This atmosphere was destroyed by rising insurgency and Islamic militancy in the Kashmir Valley, forcing the Kashmiri Pandits to flee the valley. Militant groups such as the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front, Al Farhan, Harkatul Mujahideen and Hizbul Mujahideen, targeted the Kashmiri Pandits, even as a local newspaper and Mosque released frightening messages. Faced with atrocities, killing and crimes against women, Kashmiri Pandits fled their homes in January 1990. Their mass exodus began on 1 March 1990, when thousands of Kashmiri Pandits left the state. In 2016, only 2000-3000 Kashmiri Pandits were reportedly left in the valley.
Situation in Pak Occupied Kashmir
In 1970, Gilgit Agency and Baltistan, were merged into a single administrative unit, and given the name "Northern Areas”: though Pakistan questioned the separation of Ladakh from J&K in 2019, it had already separated NA from POK in 1970. A part, the Shaksgam tract, was ceded by Pakistan to China following the signing of the Sino-Pakistan Agreement in 1963, by which "Pakistan illegally ceded 5,180 sq. kms. of Indian territory in POK to China”. In 1994, a Legal Framework Order (LFO) was created by KANA Ministry of Pakistan to serve as the de facto constitution for the region.
In 1974, the former State Subject law was abolished in Gilgit Baltistan, and Pakistanis from other areas could buy land and settle there. In 1984 the territory changed further with the opening of the Karakoram Highway, built with Chinese help and linking China with Pakistan through illegally occupied Indian territory.
The 1988 Gilgit Massacre
Shia Muslims in Gilgit District were attacked and killed by a thousand-strong force of Sunni sectarian militants, most of whom had been supported by the military/ ISI for the Afghan intervention and for a proxy war in J&K. Shia women living in Gilgit District were victims of crimes by local Sunni tribesmen and militants. Analysts point to powerful Generals of the Pakistan army for the killing of hundreds of local Shias.
Political activists have accused Pakistan of changing the demography of Gilgit Baltistan and Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) in disregard to its own commitments. Islamabad has gradually diluted its constitution in order to facilitate outsiders to grab land and resources of illegally occupied areas. Pakistan’s vociferous reaction to the Indian constitutional changes to article 370 pertaining to J&K, therefore, did not hold any water.