New Delhi: The Narendra Modi government will observe 22 October as ‘Black Day’ in a concerted way to highlight Pakistan’s role in unleashing brutality in Jammu and Kashmir in 1947.
The government has planned several events in the national capital as well as Jammu and Kashmir, besides virtual events to mark the day.
Two months after India’s independence, on 22 October 1947, Pakistan invaded Kashmir and brought in its wake horrifying stories of mass plunder and vandalism. Thousands of men, women and children were killed while the raiders carried out a siege of the then bustling town of Baramulla.
A two-day symposium on ‘Memories of 22 October 1947’ is being organised in Kashmir by the National Museum Institute that will bring to light the historical narrative of that day.
The symposium proposes to outline shapes and contours of a future exhibition/museum on the proposed theme, government sources said.
Posters of Black Day, which is observed every year by refugees from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), have already appeared in several parts of Srinagar.
Sources also said 22 October 1947 marked the beginning of the first war of independent India since Pakistan raiders launched an audacious and gruesome attack on the erstwhile princely state of Jammu and Kashmir to capture it.
It was only on 26 October 1947 that Maharaja Hari Singh signed the Instrument of Accession merging the state of Jammu and Kashmir with India, but by then the raiders had left a trail of blood and destruction.
‘Initiative to bring awareness’
A book, Raiders in Kashmir, by retired major general of Pakistan Army, Akbar Khan, which documented Pakistan’s hand behind the aggression, has also been republished.
“The consequences of this water-shed event are still affecting the country. It is necessary to portray such a historic narrative in order to create a dialogue among the people. The aim of such initiative would be to bring about awareness among the people about this phase of our history.
“It will help in remembering how the country fought in the very first conflict faced by (independent) India,” a concept note prepared by the symposium said.
The videos and pictures that will be part of the exhibition will include those from the Mission Hospital in Baramulla where many had taken refuge.
“Nuns, nurses and women, irrespective of religion and age were raped and their bodies thrown into the well. Families of young girls killed them before the raiders could reach them,” an official involved in the project said.
Following the accession of the state to India, Indian troops were airlifted to Srinagar, the state capital, to repel the tribal invasion.
Lt Col Ranjit Rai, who then led the 16 Sikh, was killed while fighting the raiders who had shifted focus to Srinagar.
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