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Birth and Childhood
Maqbool Butt was born on 18th February 1938 to a
peasant family in Trahagam village Tehsil Handwara, district
Kupwara. His father was called Ghulam Qadar Butt. All we know
about his mother is that she died when Maqbool Butt was 11
years old pupil in the village’s primary (junior) school. He
had a younger brother Gulam Nabi Butt. As per traditions
Ghulam Qadar married again to provide mothering for his
children. From second wife he had two sons, Manzoor Ahmed Butt
and Zahoor Ahmed Butt and three daughters. The early years of Maqbool Butt’s life, like thousands of other Kashmiri children
were shaped by the harsh living conditions that characterised
the life of peasants at this juncture of Kashmir history.
It was the
feudal system in the Maharaja’s Kashmir that forced Maqbool
Butt to participate in the first political action in his life
long struggle against suppression, occupation and for
equality, freedom and social justice. Telling this story on 12
April 1972 from Camp Prison Lahore in a letter written in
reply to Azra Mir, the daughter of veteran Kashmiri political
activist and intellectual, G.M. Mir who was in prison with
Maqbool Butt in relation to the hijacking of an Indian plane ‘Ganaga’,
Maqbool Butt wrote:
Further Education
After
completing his secondary school certificate, Maqbool Butt
moved on to St. Joseph College in Baramula. This was a private
missionary college. Here he gained his first degree (BA) in
history and political science.
Crossing the Divide First Time
The journey
on that road to great sacrifice for Maqbool Butt was started
while still a student at St. Joseph College. Responding to a
question about crossing over to Pakistan in the above
interview that was recorded in room number 26 of Mujahid Hotel
International, Maqbool Butt said:
In Pakistan
First and foremost problem before Maqbool Butt in Pakistan was
to continue his education and at the same time find a job to
meet the expenses. For with out that “it
was hard to live in Pakistan’. Therefore, I joined ’Injam’
(end/conclusion/performance), a weekly magazine, as sub-editor
and started my working life as a journalist. I did my MA
(from Pehswar university) in Urdu literature and worked with
‘Anjam’ till the start of full time politics in 196
(Khawaja,
1997). Meanwhile his marriage was arranged by his uncle with a
Kashmiri woman Raja Begum in 1961. He had two sons from this
wife, Javed Maqbool born in 1962 and Shaukat Maqbool in 1964.
In 1966 he married to a school teacher Zakra Begum and had a
daughter Lubna Maqbool from her.
First Crossing Back to IHK
For the next ten months the group of four recruited more
people into the ranks of NLF including GM Lone (the vice
president of PF) and on 10th June 1966 the first
group of NLF members secretly crossed over to the Indian
occupied Kashmir. Maqbool Butt, Aurangzeb, a student from
Gilgit, Amir Ahmed and Kala Khan, a retired subedar (non
commissioned officer from AJK force) went deep into Valley
while Major Amanullah and subedar Habibullah remained near to
the division line. The former were to recruit Kashmiris in the
IOK into NLF while the latter were responsible for training
and weapon supply. Maqbool Butt along with three of his group
members worked underground for three months and established
several gorilla cells in IOK.
Escape from Prison
Soon they started planning escape from the prison and within a
month and half managed to escape from the prison in Srinagar.
Maqbool Butt later wrote in great detail about the escape and
submitted that before the Special Trial Court in Pakistant
where he was tried along with other NLF members for ‘Ganga’
hijacking. However, only a brief account of the escape is
included here from one of his interviews:
The Ganga Hijacking
The event that brought Maqbool Butt and the Kashmir Issue in
limelight in Kashmir, South Asia and at international level
was the hijacking of an Indian Fokker plane ‘Ganga’. There are
several official and common theories about the background and
impacts of this hijacking which can not be discussed in the
scope of this article. Therefore only a brief account is
presented below.
Ganga, an Indian airliner was hijacked on 30
January 1971 at 1305 hours while on its routine flight
from Srinagar to Jammu. In total it was carrying 30 people
including four crew members. The Hijackers were two young
Kashmiris Hashim and Ashraf Qureshi. They brought the plane to
Lahore airport and demanded the release of about
The Last Crossing
With NLF dismantled and PF demoralised, Maqbool Butt once
again crossed over to the Indian occupied Kashmir against the
advice of many of his friends and comrades in May 1976. This
time he went with Abdul Hammed Butt and Riaz Dar. Within few
days of crossing they were spotted and arrested by the Indian
forces. In 1978 the Indian Supreme Court restored death
sentence on Maqbool Butt and he was transferred to Delhi’s
Tihaar Prison. After eight long years in prison Maqbool Butt
was hanged on 11th February 1984 while the legal team was
waiting for Maqbool Butt’s case to be reopened on the grounds
of flaws in the trial that convicted Maqbool Butt of murder.
His execution was carried out in haste to avenge the killing
of an Indian diplomat in Birmingham by an unknown group
‘Kashmir Liberation Army’. Rovendra Mahatre was kidnapped in
the first week of February 1984 from his Birmingham office by
KLA who demanded among other things the release of Maqbool
Butt. Thus was ended the life of one of the greatest
revolutionary of modern Kashmiri history and was born what
Kashmiris remember as Shaheed e Azam (the greatest martyr).
Ironically, death warrants of Maqbool Butt were signed by Dr
Farooq Abdullah the then Chief Minister of IOK who spent
several days with Maqbool Butt in ‘Azad’ Kashmir and Pakistan
in 1974 and who said later that ‘I have found Maqbool Butt a
very romantic man, just like Che Guevara. He could have added
‘like Shiekh Abdullah in 1930s’, whose politics initially
inspired Maqbool Butt as a student at St Joseph College.
An Imprisoned Martyr in the world’s largest democracy
India is acclaimed by the democratic world as the largest
democracy on earth. While there is no doubt that democratic
traditions and institutions in India are far more established,
when it comes to Kashmir India is no more than an occupier and
oppressive state that rules Kashmir through colonial like
structures and authoritarian means with little regards for the
democratic values, human rights and civil liberties. This
neo-colonial face of Indian rule in Kashmir was demonstrated
in its worst form in the way Maqbool Butt was hanged and what
followed.
He had a dream
Twenty four years on, since Kashmir’s first dreamer for an
independent Kashmir was sent to the gallows, his dream, his
prophecy and his legacy lives on.
While the political scene on both side of
Kashmir
changed dramatically after that fateful February day in 1984 -
when Kashmir’s little known revolutionary was hanged in India,
his hanging changed the fate and fortunes of
Kashmir.
That momentous change which evolved into an armed revolution
has meant that the issue of Kashmir is not going to be brushed
under the carpet until his mission is complete. He is now known as the
Shaheed-e-Azam, ‘father of the nation’. He has become an icon
for countless political groups both within and outside the
vale of
Kashmir.
11 February is being commemorated as Maqbool Bhat’s death
anniversary. Every year on this day the scene was set to make a modern
day legend for Kashmir. On this day Kashmiris remember their
hero with honours and pride. Kashmiri groups, on both sides of
the dreaded line of control and all over the world, remember
him well but his adversaries who had hoped that he would be
forgotten with the passage of time wish their nightmare was
over. Born after his death, young men of age 22 who have grown
up with the only undisputed name in Kashmir’s turbulent
history are not likely to forget his dream and his mission.
That name will live on for centuries to come.
Source
www.maqboolbutt.com |
