Suman K. Sharma
On November 25, 1947, the historic city of Mirpur fell to the Kabaili raiders, who were aided and abetted by the four-month old state of Pakistan. On that chilly Tuesday, sixty-five years ago, in an air reeking of blood and gore, a long procession of woe-begone men, women and children embarked on their journey to nowhere, leaving behind their dead and their earthly possessions.
Where precisely was this Mirpur? The Gazetteer of India and Pakistan lists as many as fifty-four towns by that name. The Mirpur we are talking of lay eight miles east of the river Jhelum. A look at the map of India would reveal that the Jhelum demarcates the boundary between pre-1947 state of Jammu and Kashmir and Pakistan. Running southward from Muzzafarbad (now the ‘capital’ of the Pak-held Kashmir), the river widens and turns eastwards. It was here that once stood the old town of Mirpur. If you could consider that J&K is India’s turbaned head, Mirpur would then be somewhere round its chin.
From Mirpur Choumakh – the four faced town – roads led to Delhi in the east, Peshawar in the west, Kashmir in the north and the Jhelum in the south. Naturally, the bulk of trade between the Punjab and the hills of Kashmir was carried out in Mirpur. Frederick Drew, Governor of Ladakh province during the reign of Maharaja Ranbir Singh, writing in 1875, testifies to its prosperity. The Gazetteer of Kashmir and Ladakh (1890) records that Mirpur had ‘…a well stocked bazaar, a tehsil…and plentiful of supplies, transport, firewood, grass and water.’
Thanks to its strategic position, it was a strong bastion of the Dogra rulers. Located here was were the wazarat (district headquarters) of Mirpur district as also the headquarters of the Mirpur Brigade, comprising three battalions of the Maharaja’s army. In addition, personnel of the Civil Defence, formed in the wake of the communal disturbances, were also posted in and around the town. The Mirpuris themselves – Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs – wielded considerable influence in commerce and administration of the state.
Yet, the unthinkable happened. Within a month of the state’s accession to India, Mirpur was ransacked by Pakistan-sponsored marauders. How did it happen? Let the incidents speak for themselves. In the autumn of 1946, Mohammed Ali Jinnah gives the call for ‘Direct Action’, plunging the whole of Punjab and Bengal into an orgy of violence, which reverberates throughout the length and breadth of the sub-continent. The Khizar Hayat ministry falls within six months in March, 1947. Communal riots in Punjab drive Sikhs and Hindus to seek refuge in Mirpur. The local residents panic at the turn of events and Maharaja Hari Singh visits the town in the last week of April, 1947 to restore their confidence. The creation of Pakistan on 14 August, 1947 brings a fresh surge of refugees from across the Jhelum. The following day, when India attains freedom, Maharaja Hari Singh, declines to accede to the union, complacent of his power as he to cope with the prevailing violence. But within a month, his Chief of Army Staff, Major General Scott, deserts him and flies home to England via Rawalpindi. On October 6, all border-posts of Jammu and Kashmir, from Kahuta to Jhelum, come under attack…
Eating his humble pie, the Maharaja signs the accession treaty with India on October 26. Thanks to the great jumble at New Delhi, there is delay in deployment of troops. Bhimber falls to the enemy on October 29 and Rajouri on November 11. A week later, on Nomber 19, Brig Paranjpe of 50 Para Brigade arrives on the scene, but the situation has already gone out of hand. His BM (brigade-major), Nasurallah Khan, detailed to evacuate the beleaguered Gurkha troops at the June and Thirochhi Fort, butchers the unsuspecting troops to a man and defects to the enemy along with his cohorts.
The fate of Mirpur town is now sealed. Reinforcements are sent to save the day, but are mystifyingly diverted to Kotli. One version is that it was done primarily to rescue Colonel Baldev Singh of the Maharaja’s army, who was stuck there. As a consequence, the non-Muslim population of Mirpur is left to the tender mercies of the enemy. Rao Ratan Singh, Maharaja’s vizir wazarat (deputy commissioner) is among the first to leave the doomed town, escorted by a sizeable body of troops, to reach the safe havens of Jammu. Eventually, it is decided on November 25 to evacuate the town and of the 15000 persons who are forced to leave their homes and hearths, only 4000 make it to India.
In less than two decades, in 1966 to be precise, their beloved town would be submerged under the waters of the Mangla Dam for all times of come.
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