Maqbool Bhat

Maqbool Bhat
Born	February 18, 1938(1938-02-18) Trehgam, Kupwara District, Jammu and Kashmir, India
Died	February 11, 1984(1984-02-11) (aged 45) New Delhi, India
Other names	Maqbool Butt
Known for	Co-founder of the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front

Maqbool Bhat (Kashmiri: मक़बूल भट, مقبول بھٹ), also known as Maqbool Butt, (February 18, 1938 – February 11, 1984) was a Kashmiri militant and co-founder of the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front. He was sentenced to death for murder by the Delhi High Court and hanged on 11 February 1984.

Biography

Maqbool Bhat (left) and JKLF co-founder Hashim Qureshi (center)

Maqbool Butt was born on 18 February 1938 to a peasant family in Trahagam village Tehsil kupwara, 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.^{[citation needed]} 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^{[citation needed]}:

It was 1945 or 1946 when I was eight or nine year old child. At this time Kashmir was ruled by the Dogra Family. The feudalism gets established when the king allocates pieces of land to few people. Because these are loyal to the king and help him in suppression and oppression of his riyahaya (subjects) so they are made owner of large landholdings for their services. These landholdings are called their jagirs; estates. The Jagirdars; feudals neither plough nor sow in these lands. They do not put any labour in the land. Ploughing, sowing and producing the crops are the jobs of the kisans; peasant. All Jagirdar does is that when the crops are ready he appears in the fields and takes all the produce away leaving minimal for the kisans. The Dogra rulers also had appointed jagirdars in our country. The peasants did all the labour but the owners of the lands and their produce were these very jagirdars. The owner of our regions’ lands was a Jagirdar by the name of Dewan. Although we never seen this jagirdar but his agents who were called Kardars( literally mean ‘making others work) used to collect grains and fruits from the peasants. In the year this incident happened most of the crops were destroyed by the bad weather. Therefore the produce was next to nothing. Because of the low produce the peasants were not able to provide the jagirdar as much anaj;grains as they used to provide previously. On this the Kardars of Jagirdar started harassing and beating up the peasants in the entire region. They raided the houses and grain stores of the poor peasants and lashed them. But what did they have to give for Jagirdar? When the required amount of grains could not be collected the Jagirdar himself came to our village in his motorcar. This was the first time that a motorcar came to our village and we were astonished to see it. The peasants of our village got together and pleaded before the jagirdar for some concessions. They told him in details the reasons for low production. But he was not prepared to believe the peasants. He was persistent that, what come may, even if the children of peasants had to go hungry, his share of grains must be arranged. He also strongly advised his agents, kardars to complete the collection at any cost. These Kardars knew well that peasants did not have anything left to give to Jagirdar but how could they deviate from his orders? At the exact point when Jagirdar was about to get in his car after issuing the instructions, all the village children were told to lie down in front of the jagirdar’s motorcar. The Kardars were part of this plan. Therefore when hundreds of children laid themselves down in front of the jagirdar’s car he was pleaded either to stop the further collection of grains or crush these starved and naked children under his car. I was also amongst these children and remember till this day that great big hue and cry. The children as well as elders, all were crying knowing that once the jagirdar left the village without writing off the further collections, the peasants will have to face the qiyamat; the day of judgement. At last the jagirdar seeing the hue and cry of the naked and hunger worn yellowish children agreed to make some concessions. Not too long after this incident Maqbool Butt found himself at the centre of another successful action against the institutionalised inequality. While the land was granted to the tiller soon after the rise of Sheikh Abdullah to power in 1949, many practices of inequality carried on. One of the most explicit manifestations of the class and status based inequalities was observed in the schools’ annual award ceremonies. Here the relatively rich children and their parents were used to sit on one side and those of poor background on the other. One year when Maqbool Butt was also amongst the high achiever he refused to receive the award unless the seating arrangements were changed. He said that all the children should sit together on one side and all the parents on the other. As a result the suggestion was accepted and since then was made norm in this village school. While still in school Maqbool Butt also successfully led the campaign for promoting this school from primary to secondary status.

On 14 September 1966, Maqbool was the part of JKNLF Militants who ambushed Indian Security Forces. One Militant "Aurangzeb" was killed. Also dead was Amar Chand, an Inspector of the local Crime Branch CID. Maqbool Bhat and Kala Khan were arrested for murder.^[1] As, Bhat was also involved in the shootout, and was found guilty and sentenced to death. In 1968, Bhat, along with two others, managed to dig a tunnel under the Srinagar prison, and escaped to Pakistan, where they were briefly arrested.

In 1971, Indian authorities claimed that Bhat masterminded the hijacking of an Passenger Airline to Lahore, Pakistan,^[2] and the hijackers declared affiliation with JKLF under the leadership of Bhat. The Pakistani authorities then arrested Bhat and a number of others. He was released in 1974, and two years later, Bhat sneaked into India where he was soon captured.

His earlier death sentence was still valid, and he petitioned to the President of India Giyani Zail Singh for clemency on the grounds of an unfair trial. On February 6, 1984, JKLF members murdered the Indian diplomat Ravindra Mhatre, in Birmingham, England. One of their demands was the release of Bhat. After this, his petition for clemency was rejected, and Bhat was executed in the Tihar Jail in New Delhi on February 11, 1984.^[3]

References

1. ^ Shamas Rehman, "Maqbool Butt: An overview of his life and struggle"
2. ^ "The Rediff Interview/Jammu and Kashmir Democratic Liberation Front Chief Hashim Qureshi". Rediff.com. February 14, 2001. http://www.rediff.com/news/2001/feb/14inter.htm. 
3. ^ "After 7 Years, India Hangs Kashmir Nationalist". Los Angeles Times. February 12, 1984. 

External links

• "Pakistan Moves to Block March By Supporters of a Free Kashmir". The New York Times. February 11, 1992. http://www.nytimes.com/1992/02/11/world/pakistan-moves-to-block-march-by-supporters-of-a-free-kashmir.html. 

Maqbool Butt Foundation http://maqboolbutt.com Kash Tube videos about Maqbool Butt http://jammukashmir.tv/kashtube/maqbool-butt.html

Persondata
Name	Bhat, Maqbool
Alternative names	Butt, Maqbool
Short description	Terrorist executed for murder
Date of birth	February 18, 1938
Place of birth	Trehgam, Kupwara District, Jammu and Kashmir, India
Date of death	February 11, 1984
Place of death	New Delhi, India