22 October Black Day in the History of Jammu Kashmir, Brussels

Brussels, 22 October Black Day in the History of Jammu Kashmir

In 1947 India was divided in two Dominion states Pakistan and india run by Governor Generals as representative of British Crown. According Indian Independence Act provided that. Jammu and Kashmir had the option to join either India or Pakistan or remain independent .

Maharajah Hari Singh was committed to maintain independence of State of Jammu Kashmir. Lord Mountbatten, the last British Viceroy of India, flew to Srinagar on June 19, 1947 .Maharaja Hari Singh tried to enter into a "standstill agreement" with both India and Pakistan on August 12, 1947. Pakistan agreed and signed "standstill agreement". Pakistan further violated the Standstill Agreement on October 22, 1947 by invading its armed tribesman. A huge number of tribesmen, equipped with modern weapons, invaded on Muzaffarabad . This was the first proxy war of Pakistan which imposed against the people of Jammu Kashmir.

The situation compelled the Maharaja to seek the help of India with joining the Indian Union on October, 26 with a request of provisional accession to get urgent military assistances. The first group of the Indian forces was enter in jammu kashmir on 27 October 1947. it is another black day in the history of jammu kashmir.

In 1947, India and Pakistan went to war over Kashmir. During the war, it was India which first took the Kashmir dispute to the United Nations on 1 January 1948. The following year, on 1 January 1949, the UN helped enforce ceasefire between the two countries. The ceasefire line is called the Line of Control.
It was an outcome of a mutual consent by India and Pakistan that the UN Security Council (UNSC) and UN Commission for India and Pakistan UNCIP passed several resolutions in years following the 1947-48 war. The UNSC Resolution of 21 April 1948--one of the principal UN resolutions on Kashmir—stated that “both India and Pakistan desire that the question of the accession of Jammu and Kashmir to India or Pakistan should be decided through the democratic method of a free and impartial plebiscite”. Subsequent UNSC Resolutions reiterated the same stand. UNCIP Resolutions of 13 August 1948 and 5 January 1949 reinforced UNSC resolutions.

The terms of the cease-fire as laid out in a United Nations resolution of August 13, 1948, were adopted by the UN on January 5, 1949. This required Pakistan to withdraw its forces, both regular and irregular, while allowing India to maintain minimum strength of its forces in the state to preserve law and order. On compliance of these conditions a plebiscite was to be held to determine the future of the territory.

35000 Kashmirs including Muslim, Hindus and Sikhs were killed by Pakistan sponsored tribal invaders. Only in Muzaffarabad, about 1,600 women and children were . Killing, rapping woman and murdering innocent children, by the tribal invaders is the most crucial component of this tragedy.

Nationalist political parties in Pok has decided to observe October 22 as a 'Black Day' in remembrance of the 1947 invasion by Pakistani army men disguised as tribesmen, which led to the division of the State of Jammu and Kashmir.

Sardar Nasim Iqbal Advocate

Diplomatic Head JKLF

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