The Pakistan Government had on the eve of its 1947 invasion of Kashmir planned to invite late Sheikh Abdullah to Karachi for "personal discussions" with Muhammad Ali Jinnah, detain him and declare a "provisional government of free Kashmir formed under his Presidentship while he would be in jail.
NEW DELHI: The Pakistan Government had on the eve of its 1947 invasion of Kashmir planned to invite late Sheikh Abdullah to Karachi for "personal discussions" with Mohammad Ali Jinnah, detain him and declare a "provisional government of free Kashmir formed under his Presidentship while he would be in jail.
This and several other revelations about the situation in Kashmir then have been brought to light in a book on the history of Jammu and Kashmir's accession to India.
According to the book Bonfire of Kashmiryat - Deconstructing the Accession by journalist Sandeep Bamzai, the D-Day of the planned invasion of Kashmir had to be postponed several times so as to entice Abdullah to come to Pakistan.
The book discloses that Indian communists were at one stage in 1948-49 feared to be plotting a coup against the National Conference government led by Sheikh Abdullah and capture power.
It quotes the then Director of the Intelligence Bureau T G Sanjevi to have reported to Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru on August 5, 1948, about the serious threat of "communist infiltration," warning that the real intention was to topple the government.
With the Cold War at its height in the late 1940's and 1950's, the book claims the state had even then been the centrestage of super power rivalry and that "instructions had been received from Moscow by the Communist Party of India to start a propaganda war against the Sheikh Abdullah government".
The book says a branch of the Communist Party of India was established in Srinagar in 1942, apparently to strengthen Allied war effort.
In September 1942, Fazal Elahi Qurban, the communist from Lahore, organised an anti-facist school in a houseboat and the book says even prominent National Conference leaders like late Bakshi Ghulam Mohammad and GM Sadiq appear to have visited the school to encourage the movement.
"The real intention of the communist infiltration into National Conference was brought out during the indictment of prominent communist leader, the late PC Joshi, at the second party Congress at Kolkata," the book says.
It says communist leader, the late Sajjad Zahir, is reported to have said that Joshi was invited by them to go over to Kashmir and capture the country when "the coast was clear".
But the plot failed as Joshi is alleged to have communicated this information to some Congress leaders and sought their advice.
"In fact, failure to capture Kashmir is said to be one of the main charges against Joshi and that was responsible for his final overthrow," the book says.
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