On the 23rd March 1987, the Governor’s rule in the state of Jammu-Kashmir was lifted and fresh elections were held.
The 1987 elections were the Watershed in the history of Jammu-Kashmir. The election is widely perceived to have been rigged. The rigging of the election is believed to have led to the insurgency in the state.
After the late Rajiv Gandhi became the leader of the Indian National Congress, another accord was reached with Farooq Abdullah. The Governor’s Rule was lifted and Farooq returned to power in 1986, but with the understanding that Congress and the National Conference would ally for the 1987 election. In the view of scholar Sten Widmalm, the State’s two largest parties had formed an ‘election cartel’, which had the result that popular discontent could not be channelled.
Before the election, various anti-establishment groups including Jamaat-e-Islami joined hands to form a Muslim United Front (MUF) mainly pointing out that the National Conference had capitulated before the Centre, for the sake of power and bartered away the special status of the State. Efforts were made to arouse Muslim sentiments along communal lines.
MUF’s election manifesto stressed the need for a solution to all outstanding issues according to the Simla Agreement, work for Islamic unity, and against political interference from the centre. Their slogan was wanting the law of the Quran in the Assembly.
‘India Today’, reported that two weeks before the election, 600 opposition workers were arrested in areas where the MUF, independents, and People’s Conference candidates were powerful and had a good hold.
In the Amira Kadal constituency of Srinagar, MUF’s Syed Mohammed Yusuf Shah was a candidate. As the vote counting began, it was becoming clear that Yusuf Shah was winning by a landslide. His opponent, Ghulam Mohiuddin Shah, went home dejected. But he was summoned back by the electoral officials and declared the winner. When the crowds protested, the police arrived and arrested Yusuf Shah and his supporters. They were held in custody till the end of 1987.
Leader of the People’s Conference party, Abdul Ghani Lone, complained that vote counting in the constituency of Handwara was tampered with by the deputy inspector-general of police, A.M. Watali.
As soon as Dr. Farooque was reinstated on the post, he released Twenty-Three dreaded terrorists from the jail. The High Court of the state had justified their conviction as these dreaded terrorists were involved and imprisoned for Bomb blasts, assassination, and various such cases. Dr. Farooque released them on the pretext of bringing them into the mainstream.
From early 1988, the warning bells had begun ringing and it was very visible, even with eyes half open. The seeds sown incessantly by Shaikh Abdullah and post his death, by his followers had grown into a venomous tree, creating unrest all around. Now, its intention was getting unmasked.
The insurgency from across the border was becoming more and more frequent.
Governor Jagmohan grasped what was in store, very shortly and thus started sending warning signals to the then Union Government led by Late Rajiv Gandhi about the approaching storm.
But, very unfortunately the men at the helm of the affair did not swallow the bitter truth. (Probably, they had some other ulterior motives, which We all can guess.)
He had mentioned in August 1988, in his diary :
“Large scale violence and public disorder involving loss of nine lives and police firing on at least a dozen occasions; spill over of the happenings from across the border; and visit of Kashmiri youth, owing allegiance to subversive groups, to Pakistan for getting training in arms to create Punjab like terrorist movement in the state, are some of the events which provide a clue to the undercurrents and trends of the month.”
Day by day, the atmosphere in the valley was becoming hostile.
On August 17, late in the evening, when the news of General Zia’s death was announced, the crowd gathered in the downtown of Srinagar and started anti-Bharat and anti-Russia sloganeering. Amidst the imposed curfew, the rioting took place at several venues such as Srinagar, Baramulla, Pulwama, and Bhadrawaah.
And then onwards, the death of the Pakistani President became the occasion for creating mayhem.
But, it’s significant to note that there was not a single riot, anywhere in Pakistan for the same!!!
Muhammad Maqbool Bhat (Butt) was born in 1938, in Trehgam village of Kupwara district of Kashmir valley. From his early days, he was highly influenced by the politics of Shaikh Abdullah against the princely state and was actively involved in the Plebiscite Front, founded by Mirza Afzal Baig, when Shaikh was imprisoned, for campaigning for Independent Kashmir.
Muhammad Maqbool Butt was a student activist of the Plebiscite Front, then. At the time of re-arrest of Shaikh Abdullah in 1958, Maqbool Butt left Jammu-Kashmir and migrated to take shelter in Pakistan.
He obtained a postgraduate degree in Urdu Literature from Peshawar and worked as a journalist for the local newspaper. In 1961, he entered the political arena and contested the election representing the Kashmiri diaspora seat from Peshawar.
In April 1965, Abdul Khaliq Ansari formed the ‘Azad Kashmir Plebiscite Front’ and appointed Amanullah Khan as its general secretary and Maqbool Butt as the publicity secretary, for his journalistic background. They planned to set up an armed wing for the Plebiscite Front. They were unable to fulfill this wish as it was not very well accepted by all the other supporters of the front. Undeterred, they established an underground group called ‘National Liberation Front (NLF). All the members took oath in blood to dedicate themselves to the cause of “separate Kashmir “.
For almost a year, the NLF recruited and trained a cadre of Militants, in the use of explosives and armaments. In June 1966, two groups of the NLF crossed into Jammu-Kashmir. One group consisted of Maqbool Butt, Tahir Aurangzeb – a student from Gilgit, an immigrant from Jammu called Mir Ahmad and a retired subedar called Kala Khan. They went around the towns and recruited Kashmiris in the secret cells. In September 1966, Butt’s group was compromised near Srinagar, as they had attempted to kidnap a CID police inspector named Amar Chand, as a hostage, and while trying to escape, he was shot dead. The police mounted a search and an exchange of fire near a village in Handwara. Kala Khan was killed there. Butt and Mir Ahmad fell into the hands of the police and tried for sabotage and assassination. They were given death sentences by the Srinagar court in 1968.
Maqbool Butt’s arrest unmasked the NLF’s activities. Meanwhile, Maqbool Butt and Mir Ahmad broke free from the prison in December of 1968 along with another inmate Ghulam Yasin. They returned to Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir in January 1969.
Their escape from the Bharat’s jail was applauded within their community!!!
But, the Pakistani authorities were suspicious of their absconding, and Butt and his colleagues were interrogated brutally.
Butt was suspected of being a double agent.
Further attempts by the NFL to infiltrate into Jammu-Kashmir were also met with failure. The organization lacked the needed funds and infrastructure to make an impact in Bharat.
In 1976, Maqbool Butt re-entered Jammu-Kashmir. By then, Shaikh Abdullah had surrendered to his power hunger and had signed an accord with Indira Gandhi and her Congress.
Butt was disillusioned with the series of incidents. Initially, it was Shaikh Abdullah and his ideology of independent Jammu-Kashmir, that had impressed him and he had laid his life to achieve the goal. Now, Shaikh had joined hands with what they had once opposed.
Butt attempted to rob a bank in Kupwara and killed a bank employee. He was re-arrested and was charged with a second death sentence.
Butt’s arrest resulted in breaking away the bone strength behind the NLF’s movement. Amanullah Khan moved to England and received huge support from the British Mirpuri community. The United Kingdom chapter of the Plebiscite Front was converted into Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front.
The various Kashmiri groups initiated the release of Maqbool Butt. Abdul Hameed Diwani attempted to hijack a Bharatiya air-plane, in 1976. He also made an unsuccessful attempt to blow up the Conference Hall of Non-Alignment Movement in 1981 at Delhi.
The “National Liberation Army” of JKLF kidnapped a Bharatiya diplomat Ravindra Mahatre, from the Consulate of Bharat, in Birmingham, in February 1984. They demanded Maqbool Butt’s release and a sum of money, against the release of the diplomat. Unfortunately, they killed him within two days after the abduction.
This was a severe blow to the integrity and safety of the nation and within a week, Butt’s petition for mercy was rejected. He was executed in the Tihar jail on the 11th of February 1984. His body was buried within the jail premises against his wishes.
He and his followers wished to take out a massive procession for his funeral and ignite the frenzy among the flames of Kashmiri Muslims.
Kashmir was blazed, in retaliation. The shops and markets remained shut for four days. The streets of Srinagar wore a deserted look for days.
Every year, the separatist leaders call for shutdown, in his memory and as a mark of respect.
Hindustan Times, in the 17th December 1989 issue, narrated the prevailing sentiment: “The omnipotent National Conference, that claims to have its karyakarta, in each of the villages of the valley, has pitiably failed in battling the terrorism and combustion in last two years. Whenever the violence disseminator ambushed, the karyakartas of the party, opted for remaining sedentary and ascending the anarchy, instead of fighting out and concerting public opinion against them. This the reason that the violence propagators, received help and support, from the rural as well the urban areas.”
A similar opinion was published by ‘The Times of India’ on 23rd November 1989. “Kashmir valley, what was earlier, robust and now clearly appearing helpless, is illustrating conspiracy of uncanny and complete silence, against the mayhem created by the terrorists and their unlawful activities.”
The administrative control was steadily diminishing in the valley. The dominance of pro-Pakistan terrorists, desirous of independent Kashmir was unfortunately rising in most of the departments like Police, C.I.D. Universities, Banking, local publishing houses, etc.
The terrorism had arrived in the end, with a bang.
Sources of Information :
हमारी भूलोका स्मारक : धर्मांतरित कश्मीर
नरेन्द्र सहगल
कश्मीर : दहकते अंगारे
जगमोहन जी
जम्मू कश्मीर की अनकही कहानियां
कुलदीप चंद अग्निहोत्री
Kashmir : Behind The Vale
M J Akbar
My Frozen Turbulence in Kashmir
Jagmohan ji
100 Documents
Kul Bhushan Mohtra
Madhvi Bhuta is the National Executive of BJP Mahila Morcha and a Columnist on various Forums.
