Hamid Mir
The Turkish hospital in Sidon, Lebanon, was filled with those injured in the Israeli bombing. Journalists must obtain permission from the Ministry of Health to visit any hospital in Lebanon. After three days of trying, we got this permission and stopped at this hospital in Sidon while returning from the devastated areas of southern Lebanon. It turned out that a Pakistani doctor had come from the United States and was currently busy in the operation theatre. The hospital administration allowed us to wait for him outside the operation theatre. As the waiting moments got longer, I connected my mobile phone to the hospital’s Wi-Fi and tried to find out the situation in Pakistan. The first news that came to my mind was the criticism of a statement made by the PPP Chairperson Bilawal Bhutto Zardari in the National Assembly by the Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif. Bilawal and Maulana Fazlur Rehman had condemned the Defence Minister’s statement in which he said about the people of Rawalakot and Mirpur that he did not consider them Kashmiris. I could not believe that Khawaja Muhammad Asif would have said this because a few days ago I had personally requested him to play some role in managing the deteriorating situation in different parts of Azad Kashmir.
One day, I and Mushahid Hussain were preparing to go to Rawalakot on the request of some friends of the Hurriyat Conference, but then we were told that the roads were blocked and you cannot reach there. I could not reach Rawalakot, but I managed to reach the war-torn areas of Lebanon. After coming here, I found out that an unnecessary debate is going on in the dear homeland on the Kashmiri identity of Kashmiris and the Pakistani identity of Pakistanis. I quickly started searching for more news on my phone to understand this issue. Khawaja Muhammad Asif had said about the people of Rawalakot and Mirpur that I do not consider them to be tall and broad Kashmiris because they speak Pothohari and besides, he had declared struggle and sacrifices as the measure of Kashmiri identity. I wondered if Khawaja Muhammad Asif did not remember where the meeting of the Jammu and Kashmir Muslim Conference on July 19, 1947, in which the resolution of accession to Pakistan was passed, was held. This meeting was held at the residence of Sardar Ibrahim Khan in Srinagar. Sardar Ibrahim belonged to Poonch. Sardar Fateh Khan Karelvi was also present in this meeting. He also belonged to Poonch and Rawalakot is still the headquarters of Poonch district. Sardar Ibrahim and Sardar Fateh Khan Karelvi also played an important role in the armed rebellion against the Dogra government in 1947.
Bilawal Bhutto Zardari criticized Khawaja Muhammad Asif, but he did not say why Prime Minister Faisal Mumtaz Rathore, who belonged to his party, made the situation in Jammu and Kashmir even more tense by declaring the Joint Public Action Committee illegal? Faisal Mumtaz Rathore also belongs to Rawalakot. The general opinion is that someone else decided to declare the Action Committee illegal and Rathore accepted this order under compulsion. If they are so compelled, then they should leave politics. I was worried about the hypocritical rhetoric of the PPP and the PML-N against each other in Azad Kashmir when suddenly the door of the operation theater opened and a doctor removed his face mask and walked towards me. It was Dr. Salman Dasti, who is from Lahore but lives in the US state of California and has been working for :several days without pay at the Turkish Hospital in Sidon to treat the wounded of the Lebanon war. Dr. Salman took me to different wards. Here, someone had a leg amputated, someone had an arm amputated, but all the wounded were in high spirits. Among those martyred and injured by the Israeli bombing were Shias and Sunnis. Israeli rockets and shells did not see what the color, race and sect of the people living in southern Lebanon were? Israeli rockets targeted Muslims of every sect and their mosques.
Dr. Salman had previously served oppressed Muslims in Gaza. While visiting the hospital, he asked, “What is the condition of Pakistan?” I avoided telling him the situation that I had come to know a while ago. This doctor, thousands of miles away from his homeland, is working day and night to serve his Muslim brothers and sisters without any personal or political motives, and the ruling class of his homeland is confusing Kashmiris and Pakistanis. After taking leave of Dr. Salman, we left Sidon for Beirut, and my mind was confused about Pakistan. I was thinking that our rulers are praising Trump for resolving global conflicts but are creating unnecessary conflicts in their own country? When I reached Doha to return to Pakistan from Beirut, I met a journalist from Srinagar at the airport who was going to Britain. As soon as he hugged me, he started crying and said, “Why do you people want to separate Kashmiris from Kashmiris?”
When I tried to pretend to be ignorant, he started crying and cursing the rulers of Pakistan by name. He reminded me that the most authentic history of us Kashmiris was written by Muhammaduddin Fawq, who was born in Sialkot and buried in the Miani Sahib graveyard in Lahore. Kashmiriyyat is not related to language but to history, geography and culture. A study of Muhammaduddin Fawq’s book “History of the Nations of Kashmir” (two volumes) shows that not only Kashmiri speakers but also many Gujjars, Rajputs, Afghans and Mughals also live in the Kashmir Valley. His second book “History of the Nations of Poonch” states that not only Sudhans, Rajputs, Bhattis, Gujjars and Gakhars but also Kashmiri Mirs, Lones, Bhats, Dars and Sadats also live in Rawalakot and other areas of Poonch. All the generations of Sadats of Kashmir are mentioned in detail in this book. His third book “History of the Nations of Jammu” also shows that different languages are spoken in the state of Jammu and Kashmir, but all the residents of this state consider themselves Kashmiris. Muhammaduddin Fawq has called the Poonch rebellion led by Sardar Fateh Khan Karelvi a part of the Jammu and Kashmir agitation. In this rebellion, the people of Poonch burned the customs posts against illegal taxes in 1929, and the people of Jammu started taking out processions against the insult of the Quran in 1931. And the people of Mirpur attacked police stations under the leadership of Sadiq Shah on Monday morning and released the arrested Muslims. This rebellion reached Srinagar where Kashmiri Muslims demonstrated for the release of a Pashtun Abdul Qadeer.
These Muslims were fired upon on July 13, 1931, and two dozen were martyred. July 13 is still the Martyrs’ Day of Kashmiris, which is celebrated jointly across the country and is not related to any race or language of Kashmiris but to their faith. The Kashmiri journalist was crying in a trembling voice and saying that from Mirpur to Muzaffarabad and from Jammu to Srinagar, all Kashmiris are one. Kashmiris are proud of being Muslims. They do not need a certificate from any caste chief for their Kashmiri hood. Just as Punjabis living in Punjab and Sindh are all Sindhis, similarly all those living in the state of Jammu and Kashmir are Kashmiris. The flight of this Kashmiri journalist from Srinagar was getting late. He finished his speech and headed towards the boarding gate but kept looking back. Kar was looking at me and wiping his tears.
