In October, a lashkar of Pashtun tribesmen, estimated at around 2,000 and comprising various tribes—of whom some 900 were reportedly Mahsuds from Waziristan—advanced into Kashmir. They were joined by approximately 2,000 Hazarawals (Reference: George Cunningham’s diaries and Khurshid Anwar’s interview). These Pashtun volunteers were responding to reports of the ethnic cleansing of Muslims in Jammu and East Punjab. Although the government of West Punjab (Pakistani Punjab) prevented them from entering East Punjab, they were permitted—and to some extent facilitated—to enter Kashmir. The force was led by Khurshid Anwar, a member of the militia wing of the All-India Muslim League. On 22 October, the Pashtuns and their allies attacked and captured Muzaffarabad before advancing eastward toward Baramulla.
A great deal of misinformation and falsehood has been spread regarding the actions of the tribesmen in Baramulla and the number of Kashmiri deaths attributed to them. Indian sources allege that the tribesmen massacred and raped thousands of people in Baramulla, and these claims are repeated by some Kashmiri and Pakistani nationalists eager to shift the blame for the subsequent failure to capture the Kashmir Valley entirely onto the Pashtuns. In truth, Baramulla was already empty when the Pashtuns arrived, and they looted vacant houses. Looting and some murders did happen, but no rapes of women there have been verified by authentic sources. Indian newspapers spread the false claim that Pashtun raiders raped European nuns at the missionary hospital. However, Captain Frank Leeson—who interacted with the nuns and later escorted them to Pakistan—reported that the Mahsuds did not commit such acts. It is worth noting that Leeson was not an admirer of the Mahsuds (for ambushing British military convoys in Waziristan), yet he stated: “Although the Mahsuds had a bad reputation, I would not call them rapists.” An interview with Frank Leeson conducted by Andrew Whitehead can be listened to here. The priests and nuns, also interviewed by Whitehead, denied that Pashtuns raped any nuns at Baramulla. In his book 'Mission in Kashmir', Whitehead even cites a Hindu resident of Baramulla who confirmed that Pashtuns did not rape any women—let alone European nuns—up to the time of their evacuation. This testimony carries particular weight, as the witness, being Hindu, had every reason to resent the Pashtuns. (Ref: Mission in Kashmir by Andrew Whitehead, p.95)
There was no central leadership for this amalgamation of volunteers from various Pashtun tribes. Naturally, they were not going to treat some stranger, Khurshid Anwar from East Punjab, as their supreme leader; he was nothing more than a guide in their eyes. The result was that each tribal band acted independently and counselled with each other for their next plan of action, rather than following the directions of a single leader. Some, like the Mahsuds, who were accustomed to plundering raids back home, engaged in looting Baramulla, while others, like the Mohmands, did not. The late Sardar Abdul Qayyum Khan, a politician from Azad Kashmir, in his interview with Andrew Whitehead, pointed out the Mahsuds for looting but also stated that among the Pashtun raiders, the Swatis, Diris, and Mohmands were better disciplined and were not involved in looting or any other misconduct.
Inayatullah, a native of Baramulla and an eyewitness to the Pashtun invasion of Kashmir in 1947, was interviewed by Andrew Whitehead in 1997. He owned a cinema in Baramulla and had traveled to Lahore to get a film. On his way back in October 1947, he got a lift from some of the raiders from Pakistan and, according to him, accidentally traveled with them into Baramulla.
According to Inayatullah:
1- The Pashtun tribesmen were only equipped with .303 Lee-Enfield rifles. They were brought from tribal areas and organized at Rawal Pindi and then sent to Kashmir in lorries. The organizers at Rawal Pindi were Kashmiri leaders like Sardar Abdul Qayyum Khan and Sardar Ibrahim Khan. About ten percent of the raiders were Kashmiris. According to Captain Frank Leeson, who had served in Waziristan at the time of Partition and later visited Baramulla in October 1947, the Pashtun tribesmen had arranged their own “tribal lorries” for the journey to Kashmir.
2- When Inayatullah and the Pashtun raiders arrived, Baramulla was empty. Less than a hundred people remained; the residents had already fled. They had fled to nearby villages. They returned to Baramulla when the Indian Army arrived, and the locals welcomed the army's arrival, as it meant they could finally return to their homes.
3- Inayatullah dismissed the claim that 3,000 people were killed by raiders in Baramulla as false, revealing instead that only a few Kashmiri Hindus were killed. He added that some Hindu women were abducted by Pashtuns—apparently from nearby villages—and, along with a few men, were held at the police station in Baramulla. The abduction of Hindu women was not on a large scale, as had been rumored in Indian newspapers. Captain Frank Leeson, who visited Baramulla during the presence of Pashtun tribesmen, escorted European women and children, as well as Hindu women—altogether numbering only around 50—safely back to Pakistan. This revealed that the Indian claim of thousands of Hindu and Sikh women being abducted at Baramulla and taken to villages in Pakhtunkhwa was false. The tribesmen had to cross two borders before setting foot in the NWFP, and it is highly unlikely that the Pakistani authorities would have allowed them to take some Hindu and Sikh women they had abducted back to their villages.
4- Pashtun tribesmen burnt only 20 buildings in Baramulla, including a cinema owned by Inayatullah. When he told them he was the owner, they were surprised that a Muslim could be wealthy enough to build such a structure. The Pashtuns from the hills often associated wealth with Hindus, with some even kidnapping them from settled towns for ransom. This is likely what led to the tribesmen's surprise at Inayatullah owning such a large building.
5- The tribesmen did not obey the "orders" from Khurshid Anwar, the nominal commander of the lashkar.
6- According to Inayatullah, some tribesmen harassed nuns at Baramulla, with the result that the nuns were sent to Rawalpindi. The “harassment” Inayatullah was talking about entailed nuns being roughly searched for jewellery, rounded up, and had guns pointed at them. According to Time Magazine (volume 50), it was Mahsud tribesmen who burst into the missionary hospital at Baramulla and killed a British army officer, his wife, and two European nuns.
According to an eyewitness, Sister Pricilla (interviewed by Andrew Whitehead), it was an Afridi named Saurab Hayat Khan, a former officer of the British-Indian Army, whose intervention prevented the worst of the violence at the hospital. The Mahsuds had entered the hospital with a view to loot the patients and the nuns. A Mahsud was in the attempt of extracting a gold tooth from the mouth of a nun when Saurab Hayat Khan and his men barged in. The Europeans in the missionary hospital had not evacuated, under the assumption that the tribesmen wouldn't bother or harm them.
Transcript of the full interview of Inayatullah can be read here: Interview with 'Inayatullah' [sound recording] (soas.ac.uk)
Khurshid Anwar, the nominal commander of the lashkar, fell out with the Pashtuns at Baramulla, which caused a delay. He asked the tribal leaders to sign an undertaking on behalf of their men to abstain from looting, respect government property, and protect treasuries. The tribal leaders objected, arguing that it was the most inappropriate time to raise such a demand and that the tribesmen would never agree to it, having come with the belief that they could keep whatever they seized. Consequently, Khurshid Anwar paused at Baramulla to summon political and religious figures respected by the tribesmen, hoping they could persuade them. The Pir of Manki Sharif arrived at Baramulla and reprimanded the Pashtuns for looting, issuing an order that the Mahsuds must return. However, Pashtuns from other tribes refused to fight unless the Mahsuds remained with them. (“A Mission in Kashmir,” Andrew Whitehead, p. 134)
.webp "Small arms factory in Jamrud where gunsmiths made artillery barrels for the 1947 Kashmir War. Photo by Margaret Bourke-White")
.webp "Armed Pashtun tribesmen of the Mohmand tribe waiting between Peshawar and Rawalpindi in December 1947 to lead into Kashmir. Photo by Margaret Bourke-White.")
.webp "Pashtun volunteers from Waziristan bound for Kashmir in 1947, documented by Lt. Frank Leeson during his service with the North Waziristan Khassadars")
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