JK News Today
The October 22 serves a chilling reminder of the murderous nightmare that the residents of the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir had to undergo in 1947 when Pakistan army sponsored marauders unleashed unspeakable horrors on Hindus and Sikhs with their sinister objective of annexing the state by force. This is putting it mildly against the backdrop of what had happened from October 22, 1947, with the Hindu and Sikh population .. Even 73 years after the days of the nightmare , they are moving as people whose souls have been pierced forever.
It is because not only they were murdered but their souls were brutalised too. The memories of which send shiver down the spine of those who lost everything or those who witnessed the horrors, which became part of their lives
Some who could escape have the heart-wrenching stories to tell of the brutalities of Pakistani army . These are stories of loot, plunder , murder and rapes . These horrors were never documented in their entirety because at the time the victims were in rush to escape from the murderous campaign of the invaders who not only wanted to capture the territory but also their bodies – men were murdered , women were raped , and many of whom jumped into river to die to save themselves from the shame that they had suffered . Inhuman and heinous are no words to describe the savagery .
They made rape as a weapon to make Hindus and Sikhs to suffer and leave their homes and hearths. Ask anyone who had to migrate from , now what is Pakistan occupied Kashmir, under the cover of darkness to escape the brutalities by the savage crowds of tribesmen who were enrolled and backed by Pakistani army to invade Jammu and Kashmir, will reply with numbness. Those horrors are so despicable that there are no words to describe them.
These horrors have not been well documented because that war launched against the innocent people of Jammu and Kashmir who had lived in harmony for centuries together under Dogra rule They were in no position to write their experiences . Their lives were shattered, their family members were massacred before their eyes and the young girls criminally assaulted .
This is not some imaginary tale drawn from some horror movie , it is a real-time tale where savagery of stone age too is put to shame.
Pakistani author Anam Zakaria in her book “ Between The Great Divide – A journey into Pakistan administered Kashmir” has documented some of these horror stories based on what we call verbal history. Her one paragraph in preface of the book sums up that why the real stories have not come out .
After her visit to PoK, Anam writes: I returned to Islamabad, seeking to find these stories ( of the horrors that were unleashed in 1947 and thereafter) documented somewhere in mainstream media and literature, but was disappointed. Though there are number of books written by “ Azad Kashmiris”( residents of PoK) ,literature that goes against the dominant Pakistani narrative on Kashmir has largely been banned by the state on the grounds of promoting anti-establishment agendas. In 2016,sixteen books , authored mostly by pro-freedom ( those who seek liberation from Pakistan in PoK) writers, were banned by the AJK ( PoK) government.”
Still she managed to tell the story of the rape in PoK. Mind it, she is a Pakistani writer.
