Mirpur
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1947:Fall of Mirpur
Sanjay Gupta , Fall of Mirpur in 1947 "Daily Excelsior" 25/11/2016
Every year November 25 is remembered as Mirpur Day. On this day in 1947 a curse descended on Mirpur, now in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir. Out of a total population of 25,000 about 18,000 Hindus and Sikhs were killed and about 3500 were wounded by the raiders. To pay tributes to Martyrs on this day Mirpur Mahajan Sabha Organizes programmes in which people from all walks of life including school children participate in processions and meetings etc. A grand function is organized at Mirpur Chowk, Maheshpura, Jammu by the Mirpur Mahajan Sabha.
According to a legend about 650 years ago the city of Mirpur was laid by two saints, Mir Shah Gazi and Gosain Bodhpuri. The word ‘Mir’ was taken from the name of the former while ‘Pur’ from the later to give the name ‘Mirpur’ which became symbol of the Hindu – Muslim unity, brotherhood, simplicity, fairdeal, integrity and hospitality of its inhabitants. Not only were they imbued with the feeling of self – respect and qualities of hard work, intelligence and God-fearing but were also brave and courageous, and ever-ready to sacrifice anything in the cause of their mother-land.
Hospitality and courtesy are the inherited qualities of the people of Mirpur. They have their own sweet language known as Mirpuri. The city of Mirpur gradually rose to become a great commercial centre next only to Jammu and Srinagar. But the partition of India in 1947 resulted in the city being all but destroyed. At the time, with a population 25000 souls including migrants from Punjab, it became the boundary line between India and Pakistan on the western side of Jammu and Kashmir State. Pakistan connived with Pakhtuns and attacked Mirpur in full force with the intention of grabbing the whole of Jammu and Kashmir state. But the Mirpuris unitedly stood against the invaders.
On the 4th of Nov. 1947, heavy enforcement of the Pakistan Army look position on the ridge known as Palan-Da-Galla and also started heavy firing and tried to besiege the small garrison of State Force on the river Jehlum about 10 miles from Mirpur city. Under heavy odds, the state force decided to retreat falling back to the city. This brought the enemy right to the gates of Mirpur City which now looked within it’s easy reach. But the people of Mirpur were not prepared to give – in without fighting in collaboration with the small State force. They organized the defence of the town. Together they repulsed the enemy attack with heavy losses on November 6, 10 and 11,1947.
In the meantime, the enemy came closer to occupying almost all the posts around the city. Not only was the ammunition almost out, essential commodities such as food, water and medical supplies in the besieged city became critical. The people of Mirpur then organized committees to distribute the limited supplies among the people. After November 16, the intensity and regularity of the enemy attack on the city greatly increased. But the young and brave souls of Mirpur also displayed tremendous grit and tenacity in their defence. On Nov. 19, the then thin and poorly equipped strength of the State Army had little hope of holding out of more then 3 days. In that critical situation, the state Garrison received another consignment of 25,000 rounds of ammunition dropped by air in the nick of time.
Though in-sufficient, the extra ammunition boosted the morale of the Garrison tremendously. The next day another massive attack was made on the town and the enemy managed to break through the defense on the south western portion of the city. The enemy was then rebuffed in hand to hand fighting by the young men of Mirpur and the soldiers of the State Army. The enemy was pushed back and their attempt to enter into the city was foiled. Unfortunately on November 21, the wireless set with the Garrison went out of order and all contact with the country were lost. The air strikes of the Indian Air Force against the enemy also declined thereafter. On November 22 and 23, the enemy used its full force and putting bullets into the city from all directions. This continued day and night without any break.
On November 24, came the final blow when a full battalion of the enemy strongly supported by artillery and 3 inch Mortar Fire launched an attack on the south western part of the city. This was the heaviest attack witnessed so far. The post put up the most spirited resistance, but the enemy came in wave after wave after wave and after six hours of ceaseless fighting, this portion of the defence was over run by the Pakistan Army units who entered the city at midnight. Alarmed by the most critical situation, the internal flying squards engaged themselves in hand to hand fights with the infiltators and kept them on their toes at the cost of their own lives till the morning of November 25. Unfortunately at this critical juncture, the administrative machinery at Mirpur clandestinely took the decision of retreating to Jammu leaving the civil population to its fate. In an utter display of cowardness, the state officers showed their backs to the enemy. Some other soldiers also left their pickquets and followed suit. This created panic, chaos and confusion among the civil population. Thousands of women committed suicide to save themselves from the clutches of the cruel enemy and rape let loose by the invaders. Others assembled in the deserted Army camp where the wounded and sick soldiers of the state force, lying on their beds were looking towards the sky with tears flowing from their eyes. In the camp, the old men, women and children were searching for their family members.
From a moment, their appeared a glimmer of hope when at 1100 hours a fighter aircraft of the Indian Air Force appeared in the sky and again at 1300 hours. But each time hope turned into despair as the Aircraft turned away without helping the helpless. That was the greatest misfortune of Mirpuris who were still alive or wounded. The enemy then greeted the people of Mirpur with showers of bullets from all sides and the whole town was covered with the blood and dead bodies of over 18000 people about 3500 wounded and half-dead were made prisoners while another group of about 3500, after walking miles and miles barefooted, managed to make their way to Jammu. Their very miserable condition of starvation and mental condition is too difficult to describe in words. That tragic of, ‘the naked’ dance of death at Mirpur on 25th, 1947 which brought the tragic fall of Mirpur can never be forgotten.
(The author is the president of Mirpur Mahajan Sabha, Jammu).
March 19 , 1948 : Train from Pakistan
Bal K Gupta , March 19 , 1948 : Train from Pakistan "Daily Excelsior" 19/3/2017
On March 19, 1948, a train full of Hindu and Sikh prisoners of Alibeg Prison (Pakistan) reached India. I was 10 years old and one of the liberated prsionerson that train.
A similar prison of Muslim widows, children, and old men was set up in KacchiChhawni, Jammu (India). The Muslim prisoners in Jammu were treated well because the chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir, Sheikh Abdullah, was a liberal Muslim. By March 1948, the ICRC in Alibeg carried out the necessary negotiations and paperwork for the exchange of the Hindu prisoners of Alibeg with the Muslim prisoners of Jammu. The ICRC brought about sixty trucks and buses to the Alibeg prison and each truck or bus could accommodate twenty to thirty persons. It took the ICRC volunteers almost an entire day to count the prisoners and load them onto the trucks and buses. We all started lining up in the morning, and skipping lunch so as not to take any chances of missing the buses or trucks.
On March 18, 1948 late in the afternoon, under the banner of “Pakistan Red Cross,” the convoy of buses and trucks with about 1600 surviving Hindus and Sikhs, left the borders of POK, crossed the Jhelum, and entered Pakistan. By evening, the convoy reached SeraiAlamgir, which was the nearest train station. The Pakistani army and police had provided guards on the railway station so that Muslims would not attack the Hindu prisoners. We got down from the buses and trucks and boarded the waiting train, which soon was overloaded with Hindu prisoners. To avoid confusion, ICRC personnel allotted each bogie strictly according to the list prepared in Alibeg. Cramped in the bogies (carriage or small train-cars), we were hungry and thirsty, and some of us had not eaten anything since morning. Each bogie had over one hundred passengers occupying all the seats and floor. There were no lights in the carriages and it was difficult to see the faces of other passengers. Later on, about one hundred and fifty women and children from Datial Camp also arrived and were accommodated in last two bogies. Amongst them were families of my friend Suresh Chander and Mrs. Krishna Mehta (later on an MP from J&K).
At that time, Fateh Mohamed, a noble Muslim, appeared on the scene, searching for my mother’s cousin, Purshottam Lal Dhangeryal. Uncle Purshottam Lal asked him to arrange water for about sixteen hundred thirsty Hindus, and with the help of some Muslim volunteers, Fateh Mohamed brought drums full of water. The ICRC officers asked the railway authorities to help the Muslim volunteers serve water to the passengers. Fateh Mohamed and his Muslim volunteers also brought some food for Uncle Purshottam Lal and his family.
After midnight, some Muslims attacked the last two bogies of women and children of Datial Camp. They had known that these bogies had young women of Datial Camp. In the darkness, they tried to drag out some of these girls at the point of daggers and swords. However, those girls screamed loudly in the night, which woke up entire train. They were crying for help and the railway guards ran to their rescue and foiled their abduction from the Muslims. After this incident, everybody in the dark train was scared and nobody could sleep. We all were praying and afraid of what could happen next.
The next morning, at 5:00 A.M., the train left SeraiAlamagir station. The ICRC officers and armed Pakistani guards accompanied the train to protect the Hindu prisoners. The same day, at about noontime, the train reached Lahore, the largest city in the Pakistani province of Punjab. In 1947, Lahore was one of the most notorious stations, where Pakistani Muslims had slaughtered trains full of Hindu and Sikhs fleeing to India in retribution for trains full of slaughtered Muslims coming from India. Somehow, on this morning, the word had leaked out that a train of Hindus was passing through Lahore on its way to India. Although the Pakistani army and police fully guarded the Lahore station, we could see hordes of angry looking Muslims outside the fence of the railway station.
Our train waited in Lahore for almost the rest of the day for official procedures and clearances from the authorities. The Pakistani guards would not allow us to get off the train to drink water because it would have caused a riot at the station. The Pakistani authorities had not arranged for any food or drinking water, and since many of us had not eaten since the day or night before, we were starving. It was almost springtime and the overcrowding of the train made the conditions more miserable. The hope to reach India soon was the only thing keeping our spirits, and ourselves, alive.
On the evening of March 19, 1948, the Pakistani railway authorities allowed the train to move out of Lahore Station. At about 5:00 P.M., it crossed the India-Pakistan border at Wagah and reached the Atari Station (Indian Punjab). Ours was the last train of Hinduand Sikh refugees from Pakistan. Most of us got down onto the Atari platform and kissed the promised land of India. We were no longer prisoners of Pakistan but rather refugees in free India. Kind Sikh farmers who inhabited (and still inhabit) Atari Station had heard about the fate of the last train of Hindus coming from Pakistan and had prepared halwa (porridge) for all the refugees. The Sikhs of Atari had also arranged plenty of water for drinking and washing. I almost took a mini-bath under a water hydrant that was primarily used to fill the steam engine of the train. Some of these Sikh men even distributed some cash to the refugees. I received some cash with which I was able to buy something to eat from the vendors at the Atari station. The train stopped there for two to three hours and then proceeded to Amritsar.
