Jammu, October 22
As the world today remembers the tribal invasion of Jammu and Kashmir, 85-year-old Jagannath Thapar sits in the verandah of his house at Bakshi Nagar here, remembering how a crude combination of 300 youths, a bunch of football players, a buried brass canon of Hari Singh Nalwa and a madari changed history by delaying for two days the advance of the tribals to the valley 62 years ago.

“But for those curious events, the kabayili (tribals) would have reached the valley and history of the region would have been different, and definitely against India,” claims the retired sub-inspector of JK police, holding a small notebook in his trembling hands.

As he speaks in a highly-animated tone, his aged wife, who cannot walk and is hard of hearing, gently holds his hands. And why should not she? For, it was during this attack that the two had come together, far away in Muzaffarabad in Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir (PoK). And the bond continues till date.

Those were unusual times and the story of these youths was the most unusual. “Please write about it. Let the world investigate,” he implores.

Jagannath was one among lakhs of migrants who came to India during the tribal invasion in October 1947 from areas falling under PoK. “We lost everything, but not before putting up probably the only civilian resistance to the tribals, which history failed to record,” Thapar, who was 23 then, says. “We were crazy about football. There was a talk of Partition but we never believed it. We played football with bare feet on the vast ground between a fort of Hari Singh Nalwa and the Jhelum river outside Muzaffarabad.”

Thapar recalls: “The ball often used to fall in the mighty river and no one could recover it. It was a terrible loss. A football cost a few rupees then. We scrapped for even one paisa in our pockets. Eventually, we thought of clearing bushes inside the fort and play there.

The high walls of the fort would have kept the football inside.” While digging a mound to level the ground, they found a brass canon. “It had inscription in Gurmukhi. We were afraid the cops will punish us. We left it there.” The political and communal scenario changed rapidly within a few months. “People had not left their homes after the creation of Pakistan in August 1947 but then we heard of the tribal attacks.”

The residents of Muzaffarabad, he says, were quite rich and knew the tribals would target them. “The Indian troops had not reached there and no one trusted the army of Maharaja Hari Singh, as it included 80 per cent Muslims. Then, one evening we saw a madari showing how a trained sparrow ignited blast in a small canon he carried.”

The bunch of footballers, he claims, got the idea of using the buried canon. “We told the elders and soon the canon was readied for our defence. We got eight .12 bore rifles, which we looted from the forest office. People manufacturing crackers for Diwali provided us with ammunition.”

The 300 youths and their families and others gathered in the large house of judge Gopal Krishan Anand and placed the canon on a mound. “The tribals, under the guidance of Pakistan army, were advancing towards our colony. One Azim Khan was leading them. An army officer, Lt Col Narayan Singh, of Maharaj’s army had already been killed by Muslim soldiers under him.”

Jagannath claimed when they fired at the advancing tribals from the canon, the Pakistan army thought Indian troops had reached there. “They stopped and we kept them engaged for two days. Many tribals ran saying the Indian Army is here.”

However, the youths were overpowered by October 23 night as the ammunition finished. “Two hundred of us were killed. They looted everything we had. In fact, our wealth also saved Kashmir, as a large number of tribals went back to their villages as they got much more gold and jewellery and pounds than they had imagined they would get after capturing Kashmir.”

A very few, including Jagannath reached India. They stayed in camps in Kurukshetra, Uttar Pradesh, Yol Camp and eventually reached Jammu eight years later. “Our sacrifice helped Kashmir, but till date I have not got the permission to visit my family, the fort and the football ground. We have got peanuts in compensation as compared to other migrants who moved from one part of India to another,” complains Thapar, adding he desired of getting erected a memorial in Muzaffarabad in the memory of the youths (his companions) who laid down their lives.