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Khurshid Anwar (Major)#Invasion of Kashmir

{{Short description|Pakistani activist and militant}}

{{EngvarB|date=February 2017}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2017}}

{{Infobox office holder

| honorific_prefix = Major

| name = Khurshid Anwar

| honorific_suffix =

| image = Major Khurshid Anwar.jpg

| image_upright =

| alt =

| caption = Portrait of Khurshid Anwar

| native_name =

| native_name_lang =

| birth_name = Khurshid Anwar Khan

| other_name =

| nickname =

| birth_date = 1905

| birth_place = Jalandhar, Punjab, British India

| death_date = 1949 (aged 44)

| death_place = Abottabad, Dominion of Pakistan

| death_cause = complications from wounds

| resting_place = Rawalpindi War Cemetery,
Rawalpindi, Pakistan

| placeofburial_label =

| placeofburial_coordinates =

| office = 2nd President of the PFF

| predecessor = Fazlur Rehman

| successor = Khawaja Shahabuddin

| term_start = 1948

| term_end = 1949

| allegiance = {{flagicon|British India}} British India
{{flagicon|PAK}} Pakistan

| branch = {{flagicon|British India|army}} British Indian Army
{{flagicon image|Flag of Muslim League.svg}} Muslim League National Guards

| branch_label =

| serviceyears =

| serviceyears_label =

| rank = 20px Major

| rank_label =

| servicenumber =

| unit =

| commands =

| known_for = Commanding Tribal lashkars during the First Kashmir War

| battles = {{Tree list}}

{{tree list/end}}

| battles_label =

| awards =

| memorials =

| alma_mater = Aligarh Muslim University

| spouse = Begum Mumtaz Jamal

| children =

| relations =

| laterwork =

}}

Khurshid Anwar was an activist of All-India Muslim League, heading its private militia, the Muslim League National Guards.

{{citation |last=Talbot |first=Phillip |title=An American Witness To India's Partition |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sxhBDwAAQBAJ |date=2007 |publisher=SAGE Publishing India |isbn=978-93-5150-018-6 |page=353 |quotation=To the embarrassment of the Pakistan government, the deputy commander of the Muslim National Guards, a private army maintained by the Muslim League before the creation of Pakistan, took a personal hand.}}

{{sfnp|Nawaz, The First Kashmir War Revisited|2008|loc=pp. 120–121: "Shaukat Hayat also had another plan in hand, which included the use of INA officers such as M. Zaman Kiani and Khurshid Anwar, a commander of the Muslim League National Guards, to mount crossborder operations under the overall command of Shaukat Hayat."}}

Described as a "shadowy figure" and "complete adventurer", he is generally addressed as a "Major" in Pakistani sources. He was a key figure in the rise of the Muslim League during 1946–1947, organising its campaigns in Punjab and North-West Frontier Province, prior to India's partition. After the independence of Pakistan, he was instrumental in organising the tribal invasion of Kashmir, leading to the First Kashmir War.

Early career

Khurshid Anwar is said to be a native of Jullundhar in Punjab.{{sfn|Saraf, Kashmiris Fight for Freedom, Volume 2|2015|p=174}}{{sfn|Hiro, The Longest August|2015|pp=117-118}} Some sources also state that he was a Pathan from the North-West Frontier Province.{{sfn|Hajari, Midnight's Furies|2015|p=63}} His wife, Begum Mumtaz Jamal is said to be a Kashmiri Pathan.{{sfn|Saraf, Kashmiris Fight for Freedom, Volume 2|2015|p=174}} Anwar has been described as a "shadowy figure", "complete adventurer",{{sfn|Hajari, Midnight's Furies|2015|p=63}}{{sfn|Panigrahi, India's Partition|2004|p=65, 307}} and a "Muslim League's most important secret weapon in the creation of Pakistan".{{sfn|Jha, The Origins of a Dispute|2003|p=31}}

Anwar is said to have worked as an official in the civil supplies department in Delhi prior to World War II. Due to the close association of this department with the military during the War, he is said to have been given the rank of a Major. He is generally referred to as a "Major" in Pakistani sources. Anwar was suspected of bribe-taking and supplying goods to civilians. This ended his association with the Army.{{sfn|Hiro, The Longest August|2015|pp=117-118}}{{sfn|Hajari, Midnight's Furies|2015|p=63}}

Muslim League National Guards

The All-India Muslim League had a volunteer militia called the Muslim League National Guards (MLNG), originally headed by Siddique Ali Khan.{{sfnp|Talbot, Freedom's Cry|1996|pp=59–60}} Khurshid Ahmed served as the second-in-command.{{sfnp|Talbot, Freedom's Cry|1996|pp=69–70}} According to scholar Ayesha Jalal, Khurshid Anwar was appointed as the commander (Salar) of MLNG in October 1946. He was given a target of rising 200,000 volunteers. Anwar is said to have devoted 'considerable energy' to the effort, impressing upon the League workers the danger posed by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, which was, in his view, financed by the Indian National Congress.{{sfn|Jalal, Self and Sovereignty|2002|p=482}} By the end of 1946, the National Guards ranks swelled to 60,000 members. The 1946 Bihar riots were instrumental in mobilising the Muslims of India to activism.{{sfn|Hajari, Midnight's Furies|2015|p=63}}

When the Muslim League led a civil disobedience movement against the Unionist government of Punjab, vexing its prime minister Khizar Hayat Tiwana, Tiwana banned the Muslim League National Guards in January 1947. But

Anwar went underground to keep the agitation going.{{sfn|Hiro, The Longest August|2015|loc=Chapter 6}} Under his leadership, the National Guards blew up bridges and railway lines during the Punjab civil disobedience campaign.{{sfnp|Talbot, Freedom's Cry|1996|pp=69–70}} Eventually the Unionist government was overthrown.{{sfn|Hiro, The Longest August|2015|loc=Chapter 6}}

Afterwards, Anwar went to the North-West Frontier Province, where he worked with the Muslim League leaders Khan Abdul Qayyum Khan and Pir of Manki Sharif to launch a direct action campaign against the Congress government.{{sfn|Hiro, The Longest August|2015|loc=Chapter 6}}{{sfnp|Talbot, Freedom's Cry|1996|pp=38–39}} He is said to have organised an underground movement publishing cyclostyled newspapers and broadcasting on a wireless transmitter.{{sfn|Whitehead, A Mission in Kashmir|2007|p=55}}

Anwar's rallies led to attacks on the local communities of Hindus and Sikhs,{{sfn|Hajari, Midnight's Furies|2015|loc=Chapter 4}} generating a stream of refugees into Kashmir, which closed off any possibility of the Maharaja of Kashmir acceding to Pakistan.{{sfn|Jha, The Origins of a Dispute|2003|p=170}} Anwar is also said to have gotten away with a good deal of loot from his attacks on the minorities.{{sfn|Whitehead, A Mission in Kashmir|2007|p=55}}

Invasion of Kashmir

File:Pakistan KPK FATA areas with localisation map.svg including the princely states of Chitral, Swat and Dir (in green) and Frontier Tribal agencies (in blue)]]

File:Kashmir region 2004.jpg

On 12 September 1947, the Pakistani Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan held a meeting in Lahore to formulate a strategy for capturing Kashmir. In addition to Khurshid Anwar, the meeting was attended by Punjab politicians Mian Iftikharuddin and Sardar Shaukat Hayat Khan, Colonel Akbar Khan, Major General Zaman Kiani. A three-pronged approach was decided at the meeting, for Akbar Khan to organise the rebellion inside Kashmir, General Kiani to organise an invasion from the south using former Indian National Army personnel, and for Anwar to organise an invasion via Muzaffarabad using activists from Pakistan.{{sfn|Jha, The Origins of a Dispute|2003|p=30}}{{sfn|Lamb, Incomplete Partition|2002|p=125}}{{sfn|Nawaz, The First Kashmir War Revisited|2008|pp=120-121}}{{sfn|Jamal, Shadow War|2009|pp=48-49}}

According to Shaukat Hayat Khan, no decision was made at the 12 September meeting to involve Pashtun tribes. He claims that he had explicitly ordered Anwar not to involve them, and that Anwar had 'disobeyed' by recruiting the Mahsud tribesmen of Waziristan.{{sfn|Whitehead, A Mission in Kashmir|2007|p=53–55}} There were other meetings however, Around 20 September, Kashmir's Muslim Conference leaders were summoned to a meeting in Lahore, where Shaukat Hayat Khan was present along with the premier of the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP), Abdul Qayyum Khan.{{citation |last=Khan |first=Aamer Ahmed |title=The Herald, Volume 25 |pages=54 |year=1994 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Qby_oTLRi40C |chapter=Look Back in Anger |publisher=Pakistan Herald Publications |quote=The meeting was a hush-hush affair, attended by Sardar Shaukat Hayat, Mian Iftikharuddin, Khan Abdul Qayyum Khan and General Sher Khan besides some other officers. "We were told about the plan to attack Kashmir. Liaquat Ali Khan said that it would all be over within hours. The Frontier government was to mastermind the attack from Garhi Abdullah while the Punjab government would control the attack from Kahuta to Jammu." }} Anwar's allies in the NWFP for the organisation of the tribal invasion were Abdul Qayyum Khan, the Pir of Wana and the Pir of Manki Sharif. Both the Pirs had wanted to launch a jihad against Kashmir to free their Muslim brethren from Hindu rule.{{sfn|Whitehead, A Mission in Kashmir|2007|p=53–55}}

According to Shaukat Hayat Khan, they had fixed a 'D-day' in September, but discovered that Anwar had married a Muslim League worker in Peshawar and disappeared on a honeymoon.{{sfn|Whitehead, A Mission in Kashmir|2007|p=52}} Anwar himself has given other 'D-days': 15 October in one instance,{{harvnb|Saraf, Kashmiris Fight for Freedom, Volume 2|2015|p=174}}: "In early October Khurshid Anwar came to Pindi and asked Syed Nazir Hussain Shah for four or five guides on the 12th of October to guide his five hundred men to the airfield in Srinagar. He claims that the original plan was to attack Muzaffarabad on the 15th of October." and 21 October in another.{{harvnb|Whitehead, A Mission in Kashmir|2007|p=60}}: "Khurshid Anwar, the man who can best be described as the military commander of the invasion of the Kashmir Valley, said that D-day had been fixed for Tuesday, 21 October, but had to be delayed until the following morning." Eventually, the invasion did take place on 22 October.

With the help of the NWFP Chief Minister Khan Abdul Qayyum Khan, the divisional commissioner Khawaja Abdur Rahim of Rawalpindi and the political agents of the tribal agencies, Anwar mobilised Afridis from the Khyber Agency and Mehsuds from the Waziristan Agency.{{sfn|Jamal, Shadow War|2009|p=50}}{{sfn|Saraf, Kashmiris Fight for Freedom, Volume 2|2015|p=174}} They were further joined by Wazirs, Daurs, Bhittanis, Khattaks, Turis, Swatis and men of Dir.{{sfn|Schofield, Kashmir in Conflict|2003|p=50}} Trucks belonging to the paramilitary Frontier Corps were used to transport them to the Kashmir border.{{sfn|Schofield, Kashmir in Conflict|2003|p=50}}

On 22 October 1947, Anwar entered Kashmir near Muzaffarabad heading a lashkar of 4,000 tribesmen.{{sfn|Whitehead, A Mission in Kashmir|2007|p=60}} They quickly secured Muzaffarabad, took Uri and proceeded to Baramulla. At each location, they stopped to plunder the local population, especially the Hindus and Sikhs. It was part of their arrangement with Anwar; "they had no other remuneration," according to Colonel Akbar Khan.{{sfn|Whitehead, A Mission in Kashmir|2007|p=61}} When they reached Baramulla, a rich provincial capital, their desire for loot was overwhelming, and they stopped listening to Anwar's orders. Anwar and some of the tribal elders grew deeply ashamed of what was done in Baramulla.{{sfn|Whitehead, A Mission in Kashmir|2007|pp=124–125}}

The tribal lashkar stopped in Baramulla for two days, during which the Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir negotiated his accession to India and India air-lifted troops to Srinagar. According to some accounts, Anwar asked for an undertaking from the tribal leaders to abstain from looting, respect government property and protect treasuries. The tribesmen are said to have refused. Scholar Andrew Whitehead states that Anwar appears to have summoned political and religious leaders of the tribesmen to instil discipline in them. The Pir of Manki Sharif himself was among them.{{sfn|Whitehead, A Mission in Kashmir|2007|pp=133–134}}

On 29 October, Governor George Cunningham of NWFP claims to have convinced Mohammad Ali Jinnah of providing better support to the tribal lashkar. Consequently, the government decided to maintain a contingent of 5,000 tribesmen in Kashmir, provide their rations and ammunition, and establish a directing committee of five officials in Abbottabad to control recruitment and supplies. A battalion of troops was also sent to maintain order among tribesmen.{{sfn|Whitehead, A Mission in Kashmir|2007|pp=136–137}}

After the tribesmen advanced again, about 1,000 of them reached Budgam by 3 November, which was within five miles of the Srinagar airfield. Here they were engaged by Indian troops. According Brigadier L. P. Sen of the Indian Army, the tribesmen failed to press home their advantage in reaching the airfield. Anwar states that he reached within one mile of the airfield along with twenty men, but lacked the strength to press forward.{{sfn|Whitehead, A Mission in Kashmir|2007|pp=156}} Around 6 November, Srinagar was exposed to its closest encounter with war as the city "reverberated to the sound of machine-gun and mortar firing". Three hundred tribesmen faced a roadblock of the Indian Army 4.5 km west of the city, and engaged in a pitched battle in the early hours of the morning. By dawn, they were repulsed.{{sfn|Whitehead, A Mission in Kashmir|2007|pp=157–158}} The tribesmen then gathered at Shalateng, northwest of Srinagar. The Indians deployed newly arrived armoured cars and air support. The tribesmen were routed, with heavy casualties, and dispersed. The Indians pursued them and recaptured Pattan, Baramulla and Uri within the next few days.{{sfn|Whitehead, A Mission in Kashmir|2007|pp=159–160}}

Around 10 November, Anwar was injured in leg by a bomb splinter and was evacuated to Abbottabad. Colonel Akbar Khan took over the command of the tribal lashkar.{{sfn|Whitehead, A Mission in Kashmir|2007|p=191}}

Pakistan Football Federation

Anwar served as president of the Pakistan Football Federation between 1948 and 1949.{{cite web |title=Pakistan Football Federation |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150404135433if_/http://www.pff.com.pk/history.php}}

References

{{reflist|30em}}

Bibliography

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  • {{citation |last=Hajari |first=Nisid |author-link=Nisid Hajari |title=Midnight's Furies: The Deadly Legacy of India's Partition |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OJGdBAAAQBAJ |year=2015 |publisher=Houghton Mifflin Harcourt |isbn=978-0-547-66924-3 |ref={{sfnref|Hajari, Midnight's Furies|2015}}}}
  • {{citation |last=Hiro |first=Dilip |title=The Longest August: The Unflinching Rivalry Between India and Pakistan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PpPCBAAAQBAJ |date=2015 |publisher=Nation Books |isbn=978-1-56858-503-1 |ref={{sfnref|Hiro, The Longest August|2015}}}}
  • {{citation |last=Jalal |first=Ayesha |author-link=Ayesha Jalal|title=Self and Sovereignty: Individual and Community in South Asian Islam Since 1850 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Sa6CAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA482 |date=2002 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-134-59937-0 |ref={{sfnref |Jalal, Self and Sovereignty |2002}}}}
  • {{citation |last=Jamal |first=Arif |title=Shadow War: The Untold Story of Jihad in Kashmir |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TNO5MAAACAAJ |year=2009 |publisher=Melville House |isbn=978-1-933633-59-6 |ref={{sfnref|Jamal, Shadow War|2009}}}}
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{{Pakistan Movement}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Anwar, Khurshid}}

Category:Leaders of the Pakistan Movement

Category:All-India Muslim League politicians

Category:People of the Indo-Pakistani war of 1947–1948

Category:People of the 1947 Kashmir conflict

Category:People from Jalandhar

Category:Presidents of the Pakistan Football Federation