THE STRUGGLE OF THE KASHMIRI PEOPLE FOR THE RE-ESTABLISHMENT OF THE AZAD KASHMIR GOVERNMENT

THE STRUGGLE OF THE KASHMIRI PEOPLE FOR THE RE-ESTABLISHMENT OF THE AZAD

KASHMIR GOVERNMENT





By:Younus Taryaby





With the forced occupation of Kashmir, the Azad Kashmir Movement was

suppressed and submerged under the powerful occupations and the cultural

industries of Bharat and Pakistan . Azad Kashmir Army was disbanded. Patriotic,

democrat and revolutionary Kashmiris were marginalised, and Kashmir was

dismembered. The processes for the Bharatinisation of Kashmiris in Bharati

Occupied Kashmir and Pakistanisation of Kashmiris in Pakistani Occupied Kashmir

have begun on the basis of fraud, aggression and lies. These were immediate

destructive consequences of overthrowing of the Provisional Republican

Government of Kashmir on 24th October 1947 and the division of Kashmir on 1st

January 1949, and they continue to increase.



After the overthrow of the legal, constitutional and representative

Provisional Republican Government of Kashmir under the guns of tribesmen

invaders and the Pakistani occupation of Azad Kashmir, the only logical and

correct course to take for the people of Pakistani Occupied Kashmir was to

struggle for the re-establishment of the Provisional Government of Kashmir on

the bases of declaration made on 4th October 1947. The Kashmiri patriotics, on

the contrary, followed blindly the line of annexationists and raised the slogans

for the liberation of Bharati Occupied Kashmir. These slogans had a purpose of

leading Kashmiris into astray and abstract, far away from ground and historical

realties.



The Kashmiri patriotics failed to highlight the political programme for the

national independence and sovereignty of Kashmir that was established by the

Provisional Republican Government of Kashmir on 4th October 1947. They also

failed to identify the heinous plot and its hideous aims embedded in

overthrowing of Azad Kashmir Government on 24th October 1947. They additionally

failed to analyse the impossibility of liberating Bharati Occupied Kashmir when

living under a government whose status had been reduced from a legal,

constitutional, and independent government of Kashmir to a puppet local

municipal committee. These failures on the behalf of patriotic Kashmiris,

probably, can also be categorised as unintended destructive consequences

resulting from overthrow of the Provisional Republican Government and the course

of struggle that was changed from independence and sovereignty of Kashmir to

annexation of Kashmir by Pakistani rulers in the name of accession.



Historically, it was the Kashmiri Workers Association ‘ Britain ’ who

observed the 4th October as the ‘Azad Republic Day of Kashmir’ first time in

the history of Pakistani Occupied Kashmir in 1983. The Kashmiri Workers

Association argued for the need of a struggle to re-establish the Azad Kashmir

Government, which was set up on 4th October 1947 and to re-organise the Kashmir

People’s Liberation Army under the leadership of the re-established Azad

Kashmir Government.



It had taken a long time for the Kashmiri Workers Association to come out

with such a correct political path and solution to pragmatic problems that had

confused some of its members since 1971. In 1971, an organisation called United

Kashmir Liberation Front (UKLF) was set up by the British-Kashmiris in Britain

with an intention to launch an anti-imperialist and revolutionary struggle for a

free, united and independent Kashmir . This organisation also directed its

struggle for the liberation of Bharati Occupied Kashmir and the armed struggle

was seen as the only way to challenge the Bharati occupation, whereas, its all

members hailed from Pakistani Occupied Southern Kashmir.



Shortly before the formation of the UKLF, a Bharati Airline called Ganga was

highjacked from Bharat to Pakistan by the Jammu Kashmir National Liberation

Front (JKNLF) headed by Mohammed Maqbool Ahmed Butt Shaheed. The JKNLF was given

a warm reception in Pakistan , but after a short period of time, Maqbool Butt

Shaheed and hundreds of members of his National Liberation Front and the members

of the Plebiscite Front were arrested. They were labelled as ‘Bharati

agents’ and ‘traitors’ and were subjected to savage and barbarous torture

in Pakistan and Pakistani Occupied Southern Kashmir for a "crime" of supporting

independent Kashmir . Maqbool Butt Shaheed, who was later murdered by the

Bharati Government in 1984, and his comrades were tried as Bharati agents and

traitors in Pakistan .



The United Kashmir Liberation Front in Britain launched a vigorous campaign

for the release of Maqbool Butt Shaheed and his comrades. As a result, the

freedom of Maqbool Butt Shaheed and his many comrades was secured from the

Pakistani prisons. Due to this episode, some members of the UKLF, who later

helped to form the Kashmiri Workers Association ‘Britain’ in 1975, posed a

question and carried this question into the Kashmiri Workers Association. How

can guerrilla warfare be launched from ‘Azad Kashmir’ to liberate Bharati

Occupied Kashmir?



Dr Abdul Basit offered a fairly convincing answer to this question. In his

book titled Kashmir ki Jange Azadi, Dr Basit argued that the guerrilla warfare

against Bharati occupation can only be launched when "Azad Kashmir" is built

into preparation camp for the war of liberation and the withdrawal of Pakistani

army from "Azad Kashmir" is completed. In order to achieve this goal, Dr Basit

directed the struggle for the first phase by saying “Azad Kashmir ko jang e

azadi ki tiahri ka markaz banao†(build Azad Kashmir into the preparation camp

for the war of liberation). Although the United Kashmir Liberation Front pursued

this line and demanded for the withdrawal of the Pakistani army from ‘Azad

Kashmir’, the ideological baffling of building ‘Azad Kashmir’ into the

preparation camp for the war of an independent Kashmir remained unresolved for

many years to come. They believed that ‘Azad Kashmir’ was a camp for

Kashmir’s accession with Pakistan , because the Pakistani rulers and their

Kashmiri puppets had been presenting ‘Azad Kashmir’ in this way.



By working hard and digging the suppressed history of Kashmir, the Kashmiri

Workers Association ‘ Britain ’ resolved this complication in 1983 and

attempted to draw a distinction between Azad Kashmir and Pakistani Occupied

Kashmir. The Kashmiri Workers Association ‘Britian’ argued that there is no

Azad Kashmir without an Azad Kashmir Movement. Accordingly, the Kashmiri Workers

Association organised a meeting on 4th October 1983 in Birmingham and observed

the Azad Republic Day of Kashmir. The leaders of the Kashmiri Workers

Association held that without the re-establishment of the Provisional Republican

Government of Kashmir, ‘Azad Kashmir jang e azadi ki tiahri ka markaz nahin

ban sakta’ (Azad Kashmir cannot be built into the preparation camp for the war

of liberation).



It is not clear, whether it was a result of Kashmiri Workers Association’s

policy influence or an act of opportunism on the behalf of some leaders of the

Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), who took the Kashmiri Workers

Association’s political direction right into the centre of the JKLF. The JKLF

adopted this policy constitutionally and observed 4th October as the Azad

Republic Day of Kashmir in 1984. Ammanullah Khan, the head of the JKLF, wrote an

article highlighting the programme of independent Kashmir declared by the

Provisional Republican Government of Kashmir on 4th October 1947. It was

published in the Daily Watan of 5th October 1984.



In addition, the JKLF organised a public meeting on 4th October 1984 in St.

Saviour Church Hall, St. Saviour Road , Birmingham , and celebrated 4th October

as Kashmir ’s Azad Republic Day. With the support and co-ordination of the

Kashmiri Workers Association, the JKLF meeting was addressed by the leaders of

the Bharati Mazdoor Sabha, Pakistani Workers Association, Irish Republican

Socialist Party, and All African People’s Revolutionary Party. All the

speakers showed their solidarity with the Kashmiri people and they supported the

national resistance of the Kashmiri people in Bharati Occupied Kashmir against

the Bharati occupation. They also supported the struggle of the Kashmiri people

in Pakistani Occupied Kashmir for the re-establishment of their Azad Kashmir

Government.



For the disappointment to all patriotic Kashmiris and their supporters, the

leadership of the JKLF betrayed both the cause of national liberation and the

struggle for the re-establishment of the Provisional Republican Government of

Kashmir by becoming a tool in the hands of the Pakistani rulers in late 1980s.

Unlike previous nationalist leaders and organisations, the leadership of the

JKLF, this time intentionally and conscientiously changed the course of struggle

from re-establishment of the Provisional Republic Government of Kashmir in

Pakistani Occupied Kashmir to armed resistance against the Bharati occupation

with the help of the Pakistani military bureaucracy.



However, in early 1990s the Jammu Kashmir People’s National Party (JKPNP)

appeared to be as a genuine political alternative to JKLF in Pakistani Occupied

Southern Kashmir. The JKPNP refused vehemently to play in the hands of the

Pakistani rulers. It stood clearly for the re-establishment of the Provisional

Republican Government of Kashmir and for the re-organisation of the Kashmir Army

as a first essential phase of the struggle to be achieved towards the liberation

of Bharati Occupied Kashmir. The JKPNP also exposed the JKLF’s stage-managed

drama of trampling and destroying the Line of Military Occupation. The JKPNP

criticised JKLF for sending unarmed civilians in front of entrenched occupying

armies. This position taken by the JKPNP meant that it set itself into train

towards trampling and destroying the Line of Military Occupation through armed

struggle. The Kashmiri Workers Association ‘ Britain ’ not only supported

this position but its members also joined the JKPNP (British Branch) to make

contribution in the advancement of this struggle.



Again for the disappointment to all patriotic and revolutionary Kashmiris,

Sardar Shawkat Ali Kashmiri, the, then, Secretary General of JKPNP was found

guilty of receiving money from a foreign power and he was expelled from the

party (see The News International: 24 June 1992). It is believed that he

intended to change the course of struggle from the re-establishment of the

Provisional Republican Government of Kashmir to armed resistance against the

Pakistani occupation with the help of the Bharati agencies. Probably, he

intended to follow the deceitful model set by the leadership of the JKLF.



Although, the JKPNP suffered a setback in its short-term struggle, this

provided the basis for building trust and credibility in its long-term struggle.

However, not after long, a rift between the President and the Senior Vice

President caused by their so-called secret differences resulted in falling apart

of the JKPNP in 1996. Consequently, the Kashmiri Workers Association ‘ Britain

’ withdrew its support for JKPNP.



Currently, most nationalist organisations in Pakistani Occupied Southern

Kashmir recognise the importance of the Provisional Republican Government of

Kashmir, which was set up on 4th October 1947. Notwithstanding, they lack a

historical touch with Azad Kashmir Movement and a revolutionary spirit. Perhaps,

they have either no knowledge of the Azad Kashmir Movement or they are seeking a

place for themselves in the New World Order, the global-colonialism headed by

the US imperialism. As a result, the people of each occupied part of Kashmir are

still facing an up-hill struggle to re-establish their legal, constitutional and

representative Azad Kashmir Government.