Thread by @Rammyyyyy_

Jammu Genœcide. A LONG THREAD.👇🏼

— After the Partition of India, during October–November 1947 in the Jammu region of the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir, thousands of Muslims were massacred and others driven away to West Punjab.

— The kīllings were carried out by terrœrists Hīndus and Sikh militænts, aided and abetted by the forces of Maharaja Hari Singh. Terrœrists of the RSS played a key role in planning and executing the genœcide.

— What was the death toll in the killing fields of Jammu? There are no official figures, so one has to go by reports in the British press of that period. Horace Alexander’s article on 16 January 1948 in The Spectator is much quoted; he put the number killed at 200,000.

— To quote a 10 August 1948 report published in The Times, London: “2,37,000 Muslims were systematically exterminated – unless they escaped to Pakistan along the border – by the forces of the Dogra State headed by the Maharaja in person and aided by Hīndus and Sīkhs.

— This happened in October-November 1947, five days before the Pathan invasion and nine days before the Maharaja’s accession to india.” Reportedly, as a result of the massacre/migration, Muslims who were a majority (61 per cent) in the Jammu region became a minority.

— Mountbatten was in control in Delhi and had news of the genocide of Muslims in Jammu filtered out of the media. Sadly, there has been precious little discussion in India about this horrible phase of history.

— The lid on these massæcres was lifted by Ved Bhasins of that time. But like the collective silence over the massæcre in Hyderabad, the holœcaust in Jammu has been a story hidden from public by the machinations of the very people who covertly allowed the massæcres to take place.

— These included many in the national leadership of the Congress party at the time. The events of Hyderabad and Jammu and Kashmir reveal the emergence in New Delhi of an establishment which was indifferent to Indian Muslims.

— According to Bhasin, the communal flare-up was the worst in Jammu. “Rumours were spread about Muslims arming themselves and planning to attack hindus to justify the communal carnage that took place later.” Bhasin reports the large-scale killing of Muslims in Udhampur district.

— Even in Bhaderwah (about 150 kilometres from Udhampur), a number of Muslims were victims of communal marauders. According to Bhasin, the RSS played a key role in these killings, aided by armed Sikh refugees “who even paraded the Jammu streets with their naked swords”.

— Some of those who led the riots in Udhampur and Bhaderwah later joined the National Conference and some even served as ministers. There were reports of Muslims massacred in Chhamb, Deva Batala, Manawsar and other parts of Akhnoor, with several of them fleeing to the other side.

— As for the attitude of the state, Bhasin alleges that instead of preventing these communal killings and fostering an atmosphere of peace, “the Maharaja’s administration helped and even armed the communal marauders”.

He goes on to say that many Muslims living outside Muslim-dominated areas were brutally killed by the rioters who moved freely in vehicles with arms even when the city was officially under curfew. “The curfew it appeared was meant only to check the movement of Muslims,” he says.

— Terrible carnage took place later when the Muslims in Talab Khatikan area were asked to surrender. In Kathua district too there was the large-scale killing of Muslims and reports of women being raped and abducted.

— Instead of providing them security, the administration encouraged them to go to Pakistan for safety. The first batch of several thousands of these Muslims were loaded in about sixty lorries to take them to Sialkot.

— Unaware of what is going to happen to them these families boarded the buses. The vehicles were escorted by troops. But when they reached near Chattha on Jammu-Sialkot road, in the outskirts of the city, a large number of armed RSS men and Sikh militænts were positioned there.

— They were pulled out of the vehicles and kīlled mercilessly with the soldiers either joining in or looking on as idle spectators. The news about the massacre was kept a closely guarded secret.

— Next day another batch of these Muslim families were similarly boarded in the vehicles and met the same fate. Those who somehow managed to escape the wrath of kīllers reached Sialkot to narrate their tale of woe.

— Gandhi did comment on the situation in Jammu on 25 December 1947: “The Hindus and Sikhs of Jammu and those who had gone there from outside kīlled Muslims. The Maharaja of Kashmir is responsible for what is happening there…Muslim women have been dishonoured.”

— PG Rasool, the author of a book, The Historical Reality of Kashmir Dispute, said that when the then PM of India Pandit Nehru and Kashmiri leader Sheikh Abdullah met a delegation of Muslims in Jammu, they were told about the “tragic events” but they preferred to remain silent.

“They didn’t want that people in Kashmir – which had a Muslim majority from the beginning – should know about it because it could have led to demonstrations. The state from the beginning has tried to cover it up...

I don’t call it massæcre but it was a staged genocide that is unfortunately not talked about. They thought even if they lose Kashmir at least they should get Jammu and the only way was to have a Hindu majority,” he said.

— A humanitarian crisis of such colossal magnitude should never have been forgotten in the manner in which it has been for political reasons. India in cahoots with the so-called mainstream politicians of the State have largely succeeded in suppressing the chilling details..

of a Muslim massæcre in Jammu while selling the idea of ‘unity in diversity’ and ‘secularism’ to the people of Jammu and Kashmir.

Lest we forget.

Source: Excerpts are from Being The Other: The Muslim In India. Book by Saeed Naqvi.