08071948 Letter Dated 8 July 1948 From the "Azad Kashmir Government to the Chairman of the Commission (S/AC.12/Info.3)
08071948 Letter Dated 8 July 1948 From the "Azad Kashmir Government to the Chairman of the Commission (S/AC.12/Info.3)
Trarkhel, 8 July 1948
The Azad Kashmir Government has followed with interest the proceedings of the Security Council and of its Commission with regard to the State of Jammu and Kashmir. They welcome and are in sympathy with all efforts to find a peaceful and honourable settlement of this problem. It is, however, a matter of surprise and regret to them that, while the Security Council gave a very full hearing to the representatives of India and Pakistan and listened to a long statement from Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah, the Head of the Emergency Administration set up by the Maharajah of Kashmir, no opportunity was afforded to the representative to the Azad Kashmir Government to place their point of view before the United Nations. As the Government of Azad Kashmir were, and still are, in control of more than half the area of Jammu and Kashmir, the failure of the Security Council to grant a hearing to the representative of the Azad Kashmir Government was a serious injustice to the people of Jammu and Kashmir. We earnestly hope that you and the members of the Commission will not repeat the mistake of the Security Council, and that you will take the earliest opportunity to visit Azad Kashmir to see with your own eyes the havoc wrought by the Indian Army and the heroic struggle of our people, and to discuss with our representatives ways and means to bring to a speedy end this tragic state of affairs.
I would like, meanwhile, to draw your attention to some of the basic points with regard to Jammu and Kashmir which must be kept in view if a peaceful and lasting settlement is to be achieved.
The Jammu and Kashmir State has an area of 84,471 square miles. Western Pakistan adjoins it on the west, south and south-east, except for a small part of the Boundary which is shared with Gurdaspur District of the Indian Union. All the natural outlets of Kashmir pass through Pakistan, with which the majority of the people of Jammu and Kashmir are bound by strong economic, cultural, social and religious ties.
For administrative purposes, the State of Jammu and Kashmir is divided into three provinces, namely: the Jammu Province (consisting of Jammu, Kathua, Udhampur, Reasi and Mirpur districts), the Kashmir Province (consisting of Bara mulla, Anantnag and Muzaffarabad districts), and the Frontier Province (consisting of the Ladakh and Astore district and Gilgit (leased area). Besides this, there are the Poonch and Chenani Jagirs, which are sometimes included in Jammu Province for statistical purposes.
At present almost the whole of the Frontier Province, most of Poonch and the districts of Muzaffarabad and Mirpur are under the control of the Azad Kashmir Government. Our forces are battling against overwhelming odds to liberate the remaining areas from the occupation of the Indian invaders.
According to the census of 1941, Jammu and Kashmir had a total population of 4,021,616 consisting of 3,101,247 Muslims and 920,369 non-Muslims. In other words, in 1941 Muslims constituted 77.11 per cent of the total population of Jammu and Kashmir. They had a clear majority in every province of the State, ranging from a little over 60 per cent in Jammu Province to over 93 per cent in Kashmir Province. On the other hand, the Hindus (including the scheduled castes) constituted a little over 20 per cent and the Sikhs 1.64 per cent of the total population of Jammu and Kashmir.
It would be reasonable to assume that there was no marked change in the communal composition of the population until August 1947, when the Maharajah of Kashmir embarked on the extermination and forcible expulsion of a large number of his Muslim subjects.
I do not propose to trouble the Commission with the history of the Dogra regime in Jammu and Kashmir, and of the repeated efforts of its people to overthrow their tyrannical rulers. As is well known, Kashmir was sold by the British to the ancestor of the present Maharajah in 1846 for a sum of 7.5 million rupees, and the Government of the country, ever since then, have been characterized by their autocracy, oppression and religious intolerance. The army and the police enjoyed vast powers and the administration, both civil and military, was, by and large, in the hands of the Hindus, who also dominated the Court. The mass of the people lived in poverty and misery, and their efforts at emancipation were brutally put down by the Dogra military assisted at times, as in 1931, by British bayonets.
Organized political activity within Jammu and Kashmir had its beginning in the twenties of this century, and was Muslim in origin. In 1931, it crystallized itself into the Muslim Conference, an organization whose leaders and workers are now either languishing in the jails of Sheikh Abdullah or are the backbone of the Azad Kashmir Government's movement of liberation. In 1938, when Mr. Gopalaswami Ayyangar (leader of the Indian delegation to the Security Council) was the Prime Minister of Kashmir, seven of the twenty members of the Working Committee of the Muslim Conference, with Sheikh Abdullah at their head, founded a separate organization
known as the National Conference. Thus there are two principal political parties in Jammu
and Kashmir. There is the Muslim Conference, under the able leadership of Chowdhury Ghulam Abbas, which enjoys the support of the vast majority of the Muslims and Kashmir. The other is the National Conference led by Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah, who has been a paid agent of the Indian National Congress for many years, and who has been nominated by the Maharajah as Prime Minister at the instance of the Government of India. It is necessary to emphasize this fact, in view of the claims frequently advanced by, and on behalf of, Sheikh Abdullah that he represents the majority of the people of Kashmir. It should be remembered that the only time Sheikh Abdullah's party was returned to the State Assembly was on the Muslim Conference ticket, and that he has never fought or won any election on the National Con ference ticket. His elevation to the post of Prime Minister is due solely to nomination by the Government of India and the Maharajah, and is not the result of a democratic election either by the people or by the State Assembly. The fact that Sheikh Abdullah continues to keep in jail thousands of Muslim Conference leaders and workers, and that he is fighting shy of a fair and impartial plebiscite under the supervision and control of the United Nations, is sufficient to expose the hollowness of his claim to be the representative of the people of Jammu and Kashmir.
During the four months that the Kashmir question was debated in the Security Council, from January to April 1984, the Security Council had most elaborate accounts of the manner in which the Maharajah of Jammu and Kashmir acceded to India, of the uprising of his Muslim subjects throughout the State, and of the attempt of the Kaskmir Government to suppress them with the help of the armed forces of India. There are certain facts, however, which are of sufficient importance for merit repetition.
Under section 9 of the Indian Independence Act 1947, which brought into being the Dominions of India and Pakistan, British paramountcy over the Indian States lapsed and they became free to accede to either Dominion. Being a Hindu, the Maharajah of Jammu and Kashmir was inclined to accede to India and carried on secret negotiations with the Hindu leaders of India. The majority of the Maharajah's subjects, however, being Muslims, were naturally in sympathy with Pakistan, and favoured accession to that Dominion. Pakistan Day was celebrated in several places, and public demonstrations were held demanding accession to Pakistan. The Maharajah's Government attempted at first to crush the pro-Pakistan movement with the help of their police and military, but when these proved insufficient, Indian soldiers in plain clothes and trained Sikh and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh assassins began to pour into the Jammu Province and Poonch. This development took place in August 1937, long before the so-called invasion of the Kashmir valley by tribesmen. The oppressed people of Jammu and Kashmir fought back with great tenacity and heroism, and received a limited amount of assistance from their relatives and friends. from across the borders of Pakistan. The Maharajah of Kashmir thereupon came out into the open, declared his accession to India against the expressed wishes of the majority of his subjects, and so paved the way for the forcible occupation of the State by the Indian Army.
The subsequent story is too well-known to be told in detail. While the Kashmir question was being discussed by the Security Council, the Indian Army was engaged in ravaging the fair valleys of Jammu and Kashmir, destroying villages and towns by indiscriminate air bombing, killing and maiming thousands of defenceless men, women and children, and compelling thousands of others to seek refuge in Pakistan. It is impossible to form an accurate estimate of the number of Muslims killed in the fighting, or murdered in cold blood. The figure must run into hundreds of thousands. We know, on the other hand, that the number of Muslim refugees who have poured into Azad Kashmir territory and Pakistan from the areas occupied by the Indian armed forces amount to nearly half a million. The fight, however, goes on, and the people of Kashmir are determined never to lay down their arms until every inch of Kashmir soil is liberated. I went to New York early in January 1948, with the aim and the object of placing my country's case before the United Nations. I wrote a number of letters to the President of the Security Council and the Secretary-General of the United Nations, but failed to receive a formal hearing. The Azad Kashmir Government, therefore, do not consider themselves bound by the proceedings of the Security Council, and emphatically repudiate the Security Council's resolution of 21 April 1948. My Government's objections to this resolution are many, and will be discussed in detail when the Commission visits our country. I might, however, indicate that our main objection is that the resolution utterly fails to provide the conditions under which a fair and impartial plebiscite could be carried out. The detested India Army and the fascist Government of Sheikh Abdullah have been left in full control, and the Plebiscite Administrator will be powerless to ensure that people may vote free from harassment and fear of reprisals.
We will be glad to discuss with the Commission the conditions on which the Azad Kashmir Government could agree to participate in the plebiscite and be bound by its results. Some of these have already been mentioned in the statements made from time to time by the Quaid-i-Millat Chowdhury Ghulam Abbas, myself and my colleagues. Others would have to be worked out in the light of the conditions now obtaining and future developments. The principal conditions are, however, enumerated below:
(a) The Indian armed forces, the Sikh and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh assassins must be completely withdrawn;
(b) Military and police forces required for internal security and the maintenance of law and order should be raised locally, and be under the control of the Plebiscite Administrator until the plebiscite is over;
(c) A provisional government should be set up which would reflect the will of the majority of the people. As the Muslim Conference enjoys the confidence of the vast majority of Muslims of Jammu and Kash mir, who constitute nearly 78 per cent of the State's population, it should assume the main responsibility for forming the provisional government, and should provide the Prime Minister. We would welcome the cooperation of other political parties, but I would like to make it perfectly clear that, under no circumstances, would the representatives of the Muslim Conference and the Azad Kashmir Government agree to the continuance as Prime Minister of Sheikh Abdullah, who has been playing the role of a quisling and is a traitor to his own country;
(d) If a popular government cannot be immediately established, we would agree to the setting up of a completely neutral administration under the supervision and control of the United Nations Commission until the plebiscite is over;
(e) All political prisoners must be released, and all political parties granted the fullest freedom to propagate their views and ideas;
(f) All State employees who have been dismissed since 15 August 1947 because of their alleged sympathies for Pakistan should be reinstated;
(g) The Commission should ensure the restoration and rehabilitation of all residents of Jammu and Kashmir who have left, or who have been compelled to leave the State since August 1947;
(h) The Plebiscite Administration should have under its full and effective control, not only the armed forces and the police stationed within the country but also the administrative and judicial machinery, and should thus be in a position to ensure a free and impartial plebiscite; (i) The future constitution of the State should be decided by its own people, in accordance with recognized democratic methods.
The Azad Kashmir Government feels that these are the minimum conditions which must be satisfied before they could commit themselves and their people to the solution proposed by the Security Council. The conditions suggested are, in our view, eminently reasonable and are in conformity with the statements of almost all the members of the Security Council in the early stages of its debate. I must emphasize that the Azad Kashmir Government will not accept any settlement to which they are not a party, and that Pakistan, though keenly interested in the future of Jammu and Kashmir, cannot bind the Azad Kashmir Government or commit them to a course of action without their previous approval.
I trust that I have succeeded in giving you and your colleagues a general picture of the developments in our country. as they appear to us, and the fundamental basis on which the solution should be sought.
I am to express the hope that the Commission will be able to accept our invitation to visit Azad Kashmir at an early date, and that we shall thus be able to assist in the working out of an honourable and lasting settlement.
(Signed) Sardar Mohammad Ibrahim Khan President, Azad Kashmir Government