Hamid Mir
What is the difference between a traditional politician and a fighter for the freedom of the country? To understand this difference, look at two characters from Kashmir. One is named Farooq Abdullah, who is a walking partner in hypocritical politics. The other is Maqbool Butt, who is a metaphor for the Kashmir freedom movement all over the world. From Srinagar to Muzaffarabad, you will see the picture of Maqbool Butt Shaheed on the walls of every square and intersection. Where is Maqbool Butt Shaheed and where is Farooq Abdullah? There is a world of difference between the two. One is a hero and the other is a villain. But how ironic that today, National Conference President Farooq Abdullah is demanding from the United Nations Human Rights Council to investigate human rights violations in Pakistan-administered Azad Kashmir. This is the same Farooq Abdullah who was the Chief Minister of Indian-occupied Jammu and Kashmir in 1984. On February 6, 1984, the state assembly session was underway in Srinagar.
A senior Indian Home Ministry official, PP Nair, flew to Srinagar from Delhi and approached Farooq Abdullah in the Assembly Chamber from the airport. PP Nair placed the death warrant of Maqbool Butt, who was imprisoned in Tihar Jail, in front of Farooq Abdullah and asked him to sign it. Just three days earlier, on February 3, 1984, an Indian diplomat, Ravindra Mahatre, was kidnapped and murdered in the British city of Birmingham. Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi decided to hang Maqbool Butt, who had been imprisoned in Tihar Jail since 1976, to avenge the murder of Mahatre. Thakur Putar Singh, a Sessions Judge of Jammu, was also summoned to Farooq Abdullah’s chamber to sign the death warrant (black warrant) of Maqbool Butt. After the Chief Minister’s signature, the Sessions Judge also signed this death document. The time for hanging Maqbool Butt was fixed at 7:30 am on Saturday, February 11. Just think!
On February 3, 1984, Ravindra Mahatre was killed in Birmingham and after only 8 days on February 11, 1984, Maqbool Butt was hanged with the approval of Farooq Abdullah. Today, the same Farooq Abdullah is demanding an investigation into human rights violations in Azad Kashmir from the United Nations. Reading this statement of Farooq Abdullah, I feel like an old crocodile is shedding tears. Many crocodiles are shedding tears today over the current situation in Azad Kashmir. I, the arrogant one, can also see Farooq Abdullah’s reflection in the faces of some politicians in Azad Kashmir and Pakistan. The common enemies of Kashmiris and Pakistan are seeking their benefits from the situation created by the wrong decisions and controversial statements of these traditional politicians. I only have to remind these politicians and their patrons that you cannot even imagine the difficulties and physical violence that Maqbool Butt faced. If Maqbool Butt wanted, he could have saved his life by compromising with the Indian government. If he wanted, he could have become the President or Prime Minister of Azad Kashmir, but he always prioritized the independence of Kashmir over government positions.
In this crime, he fought the Indian government and Pakistan too. Today, when I see some elements raising slogans against Pakistan in Kashmiri rallies and processions, I am forced to applaud the courage of Maqbool Butt. Not even one percent of the atrocities and violence that took place in the Lahore Fort with Maqbool Butt were committed against any Pakistani politician, but despite this, Maqbool Butt never spoke or raised any slogans against Pakistan. Maqbool Butt was wanted by the police in 1958 for anti-India activities, so he migrated from Srinagar and settled in Peshawar. In 1960, he contested the local body elections of Azad Kashmir on the seat of the refugees from Peshawar and won. After the Indo-Pak war of 1965, he decided that the Kashmiris would have to struggle for the freedom of Kashmir themselves. In June 1966, he went to occupied Kashmir to organize a resistance movement and was arrested.
In December 1968, he managed to escape from Srinagar jail along with his comrades. After traveling for several days on snow-covered mountains, they reached Azad Kashmir and were arrested as Indian spies. They were tortured in Muzaffarabad for several months in the name of interrogation and were released in 1969. In January 1971, two of their associates, Hashim Qureshi and Ashraf Qureshi, hijacked an Indian plane, Ganga, and brought it to Lahore. The sole purpose of this hijacking was to highlight the Kashmir issue. Maqbool Butt and his associates did not harm the passengers of the hijacked plane, but the government of General Yahya Khan arrested them and subjected them to severe torture in the royal fort. The only purpose of the torture was to make them confess that they were Indian agents. The kidnapping plan was prepared by India, but Maqbool Butt, Ashraf Qureshi, Hashim Qureshi, GM Lone, Mir Abdul Qayyum, Mir Abdul Manan, Abdul Khaliq Ansari and Pirzada Ghulam Mustafa Alvi did not give any such confessional statement. Muhammad Saeed Asad has preserved the stories of the atrocities and tortures in the prisons of Pakistan in his book “What Happened to the Madmen”.
According to this book, some of these freedom fighters were forced to drink urine and some had feces stuffed in their mouths. Maqbool Butt’s wife was arrested and brought to the royal fort, but Maqbool Butt never abused Pakistan to take revenge for this atrocity. Maqbool Butt wrote in a letter to GM Mir’s daughter Azra Mir on April 2, 1973 from Camp Jail, Lahore that what happened to us in Pakistan was done by the ruling clique of Pakistan, not by ordinary Pakistanis. The real owners of Pakistan are the people here and the ruling clique even shoots at them. Maqbool Butt wrote in a letter to his niece that the people of Pakistan are our real friends and brothers and they will never leave us alone. This letter of Maqbool Butt is preserved in his book “Shuoor Farda” which was banned by the Nawaz Sharif government in 1998. The rulers of Pakistan should be reminded that in 1975, Maqbool Butt contested the Azad Kashmir Assembly elections from the Mohajir Nashast. At that time, the PPP government at the center put a lot of pressure on him to withdraw from the elections. After Maqbool Butt refused, he was defeated by rigging at the polling stations of Abbottabad and Shankyari. Ashraf Qureshi said in an interview that after his release by the Supreme Court, Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto offered Maqbool Butt the post of Prime Minister of Azad Kashmir in his presence in Mirpur, on the condition that Maqbool Butt join the PPP. Maqbool Butt had replied to Bhutto that Sir, I do not want to become the Prime Minister, but I want to liberate Kashmir. He also fought the assembly elections to highlight his stance. Maqbool Butt, who was a victim of rigging in the Muhajir seat, is today the father of the nation of Kashmiris across the border. In 1976, Butt Sahib rejected all positions and returned to Srinagar to liberate Kashmir and was arrested and sent to Tihar Jail. This is the difference between a traditional politician and a freedom fighter. A traditional politician sells his conscience to become the Prime Minister like Farooq Abdullah. A true freedom fighter refuses to become the Prime Minister like Maqbool Butt for the freedom and sovereignty of his homeland.
