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"I think less about....Page 4 SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2019 INTERNET EDITION : www.dailyexcelsior.com/magazine Significance of Daily...Page 3 MIRPUR MAHYHEM C P Gupta 25th November, every year, sprinkles salt on the ever-bleeding wounds of the living generation of Mirpur as on this very day in the year 1947, more than 18000 unarmed citizens of Mirpur which included men, women and innocent children, were brutally An aerial view of Mirpur City killed unprecedentedly by the Pakistani raiders in their houses to give a clear indication that the citizens of Mirpur were ready serious injured persons. Ultimately, in the depleting evening, the Nature had to fight with the Pakistani raiders. This was followed by a number of air shots to display through the darkness that grave yard was full and no more entry of grave violation of International Human Rights from the pickets of Mirpur city. Having dry reply from our side, the Pakistan any dead body was possible. That brought the temporary stay in the day atroc- Regulations. The only fault of the Mirpuris was that Government made a secret agreement with the Pathan mercenaries to launch ity. a joint attack on Mirpur. This agreement was known as "Zen and Zar Agree- This was not the end of misery of the people of Mirpur. At night of the same they had unitedly decided not to bow before the ment " according to which they mutually agreed that after occupying the city day at about 12 P.M. an ill-fated group of about 2,000 captured persons, was Pakistani raiders and ultimately they fought with of Mirpur forcibly, the cash ,property and land would be the share of Pakistan brought at a place known as"Kas Gumma" a colony of retired Muslim army and the captured women would be taken by the Pathan mercenaries. soldiers. The enemy encircled the captives and asked them to surrender all them to protect the territory of Mirpur their Birth At the mid night of 24th November, 1947 under the thick cover of fully the cash and gold items which they had with them. Thereafter, the male per- Place till they had the last bullet to fight with them. armed artillery, the Pakistani raiders pounced upon the city of Mirpur by sons were asked to remove their clothes and lie down in a row. There was no shelling and bursting of grenades which are normally used during an openly option for them but to follow their instructions blindly. Thereafter they were The trouble started when on 15th August, 1947 India got independence declared war .This was a sudden major attack on the southern side of the city tortured and killed brutallyin batches during the night. The women and girls from the undemocratically forced British Rule and the country was divided which was spiritedly resisted by the depleting garrison force. Although the city were taken to unknown places by the Pathans as per the said "Zen and Zar into two Dominions namely India and Pakistan. Mirpur the erstwhile District pickets held tough resistance, the enemy came in wave after wave and after Agreement with the Pakistan Government. Next day, the enemy drove anoth- of Jammu and Kashmir State fell on the border line between the said two six hours of ceaseless fighting the defense line of the city was run over by sev- er group of about 2000 persons and brought them to another village known Dominions. On 27th October, 1947 Maharaja Hari Singh the then Ruler of the en Pathans. Alarmed by the most critical situation, the Flying Death Squads as "Thithal". They also met the same treatment as at' Kas Gumma ' during Jammu and Kashmir State, in accordance with the terms and conditions of of the city youths engaged themselves madly in hand to hand fight with the day-light. Finally there was a massacre at Aibeg where about 4,000 captives the Independence Act acceded to India by virtue of which the State of Jam- infiltrators and killed all the seven Pathans at the cost of many young men of were huddled up in an old deserted and unhygienic ruined Gurdwara build- mu and Kashmir became an integral part of India. This could not be digest- Mirpur Community. Though the people of Mirpur displayed tremendous grit ing . In the beginning, about 50 to 100 young men were daily taken on pick ed by the Pakistan and decided to occupy the territory of District Mirpur by and tenacity but the end seemed gloomy and dreadful because the operation and choose basis to kill them in the open fields. Besides, on average basis about force in illegal manner. Accordingly, as a first step, the Pakistan Government brought the city stock of ammunition to nearly zero level. Further due to anoth- 15 to 20 aged captives died every day due to sever cold weather condition, star- in the first week of November , 1947 somehow managed to send a bag of er irony of fate, the old modeled 'Wireless Set 'installed in Police Camp at Mir- vation, illness and mental shock. Out of the total population of 25,000 of Mir- pamphlets written in Urdu to the people of Mirpur in which it was written pur went technically out of order which led to disruption in the Radio link pur city, luckily or unluckily a group of about 3000 persons which included that Mirpur city was established by two saints namely Mir ( A Muslim Moul- with the State Police Headquarters at Jammu and the Government of India the author also, could find right way and after walking on bare feet for seven vi ) and Puri ( A Hindu Prohit ) which indicated Hindu -Muslim Unity on the (Delhi ). Despite war like situation created by the Pakistan , the then Gov- days and nights without food and water, reached Jammu in a very miserable basis of which the two communities Hindus and Muslims lived in Mirpur city ernment of India due to political rivalry between the then Prime Minister of condition which too is very difficult to be explained in words even now. for centuries like the two sons of the same father and lived peacefully like a India and the Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir State, did not send army, In the middle January, 1948, a team of ICRS (International Committee of joint family. They further indicated that the Pakistan Government would give though at that time the Indian Army was stationed at Jhangar which was at a Red Cross) arrived there and took charge of the Alibeg camp and supplied special status to the Hindus of Mirpur if they allow the Pakistan to estab- distance of only a few miles from Mirpur. much needed food and medicines to the captives . On March 18, 1948 they lish their Army pickets in the city of Mirpur amicably .For this, they suggest- In that critical situation, the State Administration headed by Wazir Wazarat managed to get the captives liberated in exchange of the same number of Mus- ed that the citizens of Mirpur as a gesture of goodwill should fly white flags of Mirpur decided clandestinely to retreat to Jammu by riding on their hors- lims who were in India and willing to go to Pakistan. These liberated captives on their houses in the city to indicate that the citizens of Mirpur agree to the es, leaving behind the hapless civil population of the city to face the wrath of were not more than 1600 as the rest were either killed, died or kidnapped. The proposal of Pakistan. the marauders. Immediately after the departure of the State Administration liberated persons were mostly aged and even unable to walk. They reached To think over the said proposal of the Government of Pakistan, the senior from the city, a fully armed Battalion of the Pakistan army assisted by Pathan Amritsar (Punjab) where they were given warm reception by their relatives citizens of Mirpur which included old and elite people of the Mirpur city, held raiders, at the stroke of 8.30 A.M. entered the city from all sides and by cre- and general public. a meeting in which it was out rightly and unanimously decided that what may ating the terrible sounds from the war instruments pushed the city popula- In the memory of Mirpur Martyrs of 1947 a Shaheedi Samark was con- come they would not bow to the Pakistani raiders and they would protect the tion into one corner of the city. The terrified men, women and children in utter structed by the Government in front of the main gate of the Government Med- territory of Mirpur(their birth place ) even at the cost of their lives and would chaos and confusion in the midst of heavy firing from all the sides and in chok- ical College at Maheshpura Chowk Bakshinagar , Jammu. On 25th November fight tooth and nail and they would not surrender themselves to raiders at any ing atmosphere due to smoke coming out of the burning houses of the city every year, thousand of Mirpuris residing in Jammu city and its peripheral cost. The citizens of Mirpur even knew that the fighting ammunition which scattered and marched in different groups in different directions without was available at that time with the police force stationed at Mirpur, by Mahara- knowing where they were going . They were intercepted by the enemy at var- colonies assemble there and pay rich floral tributes to the martyrs of Mirpur ja Hari Singh, was very meager but we were confident that the Government ious places and like hungry wolves they unleashed terror and brutal savagery who sacrificed their lives for their Mother land due to which the State of Jam- of India would come to our rescue and send their army along with fighting which made the whole area an open grave yard of dead bodies and where many mu and Kashmir has remained an integral part of India.

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