29101947 Text of Telegram dated October 29, 1947 Sent by the Pakistan Prime Minister to the British Prime Minister
29101947 Text of Telegram dated October 29, 1947 Sent by the Pakistan Prime Minister to the British Prime Minister
"I thank you for your message communicated by your High Commissioner in Karachi. The position here is that on the early morning of 27th i.e. the day after Mr. Nehru telegraphed to you, the India Government sent troops to Kashmir. This is the culmination of a series of events which was briefly as follows:
On October 2nd, and in reply to a remonstrance frora-Kashmir that Pakistan was not abiding by the Standstill Agreement regarding supply to them by Pakistan of essential commodities, I wired to Prime Minister explaining that failure of these commodities to reach Kashmir was due to-dislocation of the communications due to disturbances and assuring him that we would do everything to ensure that Kashmir received its supplies. I also said that we were seriously concerned with the stories that armed Sikhs were infiltrating into Kashmir State and again pressed on him the necessity for representatives of Pakistan and Kashmir jointly to consider questions of supplies to the State and other questions. I received a reply to the effect that as Kashmir Government were dealing with disturbances caused by-armed men infiltrating from Pakistan into Kashmir they were so busy that they could not discuss matters in dispute between us but they would do when things settled down. Nevertheless, we sent Shah, Joint Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to Srinagar to decide things with Kashmir. The Prime Minister, however, refused to have any discussions with him and he had to leave. I also denied that armed men were allowed to infiltrate into Kashmir.
Then (telegraphically drew the attention of Kashmir Prime Minister to State of affairs in Poonch and on border of Sialkot District where Muslims were being massacred by State troop*. In his reply, dated October 15th, after denying these accusations the Prime Minister proposed that an impartial enquiry be made into the whole affair in order to 'remove misunderstandings and restore cordial relations* and said that if this proposal were not.
accepted he had no option but to ask for assistance to withstand the aggressiveness of people on his border. He attributed the raid of which he complained and failure to supply commodities as steps to coerce Kashmir into acceding to Pakistan. I replied on October 18th again denying accusations of a raid from Pakistan and pointing to a case in which Kashmir troops attacked a village in Pakistan and in an encounter with police killed a Head Constable. I said I was apprehensive that tactics followed in East Punjab of massacring Muslims and then driving them out were to be followed in Kashmir, I protested against threat to call in assistance from outside the Only object of which could be to suppress Muslims and to enable Kashmir to accede to India by a coup d'etat. In conclusion I agreed to his proposal for an impartial enquiry and asked him to nominate his representative when we would immediately nominate ours.
On October 18th Prime Minister of Kashmir telegraphed me repeating the charges of failure to send supplies according to Standstill Agreement and of allowing armed raen to infiltrate into the State. He also complained about articles in Pakistan newspapers and telegrams from private individuals. He drew the conclusion that Pakistan's attitude was unfriendly, even 'inimical' and ended by saying that unless things improved he would be justified 'in asking for friendly assistance to prevent trespass on fundamental rights of the State.'
This telegram was also repeated to the Governor-General and published in the Press. On October 20th the Governor-General telegraphed to the Maharaja, summarising the telegrams between the two Governments and pointing out that threat to call in outside help amounted almost to an ultimatum and showed that real aim of Kashmir Government's policy is to seek an opportunity to join Indian Union through a coup d'etat". He endorsed Kashmir Government's proposal for an enquiry made in their telegram of October 15th and accepted by Pakistan in their telegram of October 18th and said that impartial inquiry as also the proposal of Pakistan Government for a meeting between representatives of two States was an urgent necessity. Finally he invited Maharaja to send his Prime Minister to Karachi to discuss recent developments in a friendly way. No answer was received to this telegram.
There is no doubt that State troops first attacked Muslims ofPoonch. Women and children took refuge in Pakistan and burning villages could be seen from our border. There is no doubt that later they set out to massacre Muslims of Jammu. The Brigadier-in-Command of Jammu-Sialkot border admitted to our Brigadier that his orders were to drive out Muslims from a three-mile wide belt and that he was doing this with automatic weapons and mortars. There is no doubt that armed mobs headed by State troops invaded Pakistan on several occasions. After one o{ these raids 1,760 dead bodies of Muslims were counted near one of our villages. There are now about one fakh of Muslim refugees from Jammu in West Punjab.
The refusal of Kashmir to send a representative to discuss things and to nominate a representative for an impartial enquiry and their failure to reply to Governor-General's invitation to Prime Minister to come, and their deliberate causing of disturbances in their State by employing their troops to attack Muslims; and the fact that by 9 a.m. on morning of day on which Kashmir's accession was accepted Indian airborne troops had landed in Srinagar clearly show the existence of a plan for accession against the will of people possible only by occupation of country by Indian troops. This plan is clear from the start.
Kashmir's action cannot be based on the action of Pathans who infiltrated into Kashmir as they are not reported to have done so till October 22nd and correspondence with the State ceased on October 20th. All that could be done short of the use of troops which would have violently disturbed Frontier was done to prevent their going to Kashmir.
In these circumstances the Government of Pakistan cannot recognise accession of Kashmir to Indian Union achieved as it has been by fraud and violence.
I welcome your proposal that I, the Prime Minister of India and Maharaja of Kashmir should meet to discuss matters. A meeting for this purpose is being held in Lahore tomorrow attended by Governors-General and Prime Ministers of Pakistan and India and I hope by Maharaja and his Prime Minister. I hope we will reach a satisfactory conclusion.