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“The darkest days in the history of Jammu & Kashmir”
On the eve of 1947 Baramulla was a busy Trading & Administrative centre on Jhelum Valley Cart Road Connecting Srinagar with Rawalpindi. There was a mixed population of Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs & Christians, mostly present in St. Joseph’s Hospital & School. Large houses, hotels & institutions like St. Joseph’s & hospital reflected a stable local economy. Local population was unaware about the Kabalis (Tribals from Pakistan) who were marching towards Srinagar. The Tribal Lashkar containing mainly Pashtun Tribesmen supported, armed & guided by elements of Pakistani establishment, were launched as a part of a border plan to merge Princely state of Jammu & Kashmir into newly formed Pakistan. Their advance through Muzafferabad & Uri towards Baramulla was rapid overthrowing the Police posts situated on the frontiers. The aim of the tribals was to capture summer capital Srinagar and establish Pakistan control over Kashmir. In this whole invasion Baramulla suffered the most.
When the raiders entered Baramulla on 26 October 1947, they started loot & plunder within the both sides of the town. According to contemporary sources Baramulla witnessed extensive looting, arson, mass killings & widespread sexual violence across the town & in adjacent areas. Civilians of all communities including Muslims were attacked, while Hindus, Sikhs & Christian were especially targeted, even the nuns & Patients were not left. Estimate of causalities vary in numbers, but most of the sources are agreed to the fact that almost eleven thousand residents of Baramulla were massacred on 26 October alone. Houses were burned, valuable things were looted, women’s were raped & even the children’s were killed. According to some contemporary sources the population of Baramulla dropped from Fourteen Thousand to few hundred.
My Grandmother Zona Begum, who was an eye witness of this massacre; in her memory the last days of October 1947 were the darkest days of her life, she told me around 40 to 50 Sikh families were killed in front of her eyes. While narrating the stories she told me that many local Kashmiri Muslims and Gujjar Muslims saved the lives of children’s and women’s belonging to other religions. Many Muslims were killed because they were trying to save the non Muslim children’s and females. The brave Muslims of Baramulla chose death over communalism. Finally, when Maharaja signed the Accession with the Union of India & Indian Army come to defend Jammu and Kashmir & the people of Baramulla got relief, when the raiders were pushed towards Uri.
The massacre produced deep psychological wounds that survivors carried for decades, becoming part of family memories and local oral histories about “the black days” of 1947. The brutality at the St. Josephs complex and the targeting of religious figures added a strong moral and emotional charge to these memories, allowing different political Leaders later to invoke Baramulla as proof of the raiders inhumanity or of the duplicities of competing states. Economically, the town’s position as a trading hub between Kashmir and the outside world was gravely disrupted. Shops, homes, warehouses and civic buildings were looted and burned. For ordinary residents this meant loss of livelihoods.
Shaheed-e-Azam Mohammad Maqbool Sherwani: Sherwani, as a young Kashmiri, participated fully in the struggle against the 1947 invaders of the Valley, ultimately laying down his life in the process. He participated in politics within his youthful National Conference, tapering Nostalgia to the Hindu, Muslim, Sikh unity, and the democratization and secularization of the Jammu and Kashmir region. By 1947, a defiant grassroots mobiliser of the region, we rode a motorbike across the district and rallied the populace not to fear the raiders and to self-defend. During the Pashtun tribal lashkar and Pakistan-sponsored attack on Baramulla and rapid advance to Srinagar in October 1947, Sherwani was interrogated by raiders who wanted directions to the Srinagar Airport. He heroically diverted them to the Sumbal area, wasting crucial days on the Islamist conquest of Syria, keeping Baramulla safe. This delay proved strategically vital because it gave Maharaja Hari Singh time to sign the Instrument of Accession and allowed Indian Army troops to land at Srinagar on 27 October, secure the airfield, and begin pushing the raiders back. Once the invaders realised they had been deceived, Sherwani was captured, brutally tortured and publicly executed in Baramulla, reportedly shot multiple times after being forced to chant slogans he refused to accept. Only about nineteen years old when he was martyred, he is honoured in local memory as the “Sher-i-Baramulla” and an unsung saviour of Kashmir, with memorials, writings and occasional official commemorations keeping alive the story of how one ordinary civilian’s decision to resist altered the course of the 1947 war.
The writer is a Student of History at Kashmir University, Researcher & Strategist from Jammu & Kashmir & can be reached at fn6113739@gmail.com
