A Kashmiri and the pioneer of JKLF which lead all the Kashmir down

Maqbool Bhat

The Kashmir is not the bloody battle ground always. Ironically it is the polar opposite of that; a serene peaceful area laden with the beauty of heavens itself. This start of war happened after the partition of India in 1947. The massacres turned the Jhelum red and scarred the Jammu and Kashmir permanently but after that period it was quite peaceful and nearly every movie of Bollywood was shot there. The insurgency and terrorism is existent as does the Maqbool Bhat which was the starter of insurgent activities in the Kashmir. He had founded the Azad Kashmir Plebiscite Front(here is the wiki of it Azad Kashmir plebiscite front) and had established its armed wing the National Liberation Front in 1965 with Amanullah Khan who was a past Major in Pakistani army. Maqbool Bhat have crossed LOC illegally and came back to India with some recruits of NLF (precedent of JKLF) on 10 June 1966. The group is doing sabotage activities in Kashmir training common men in the jungles of Kupwara and establishing sleeper cells in Kashmir. They have captured an Indian inspector which have tried to escape and they killed him which proves to be a fatal mistake with dire consequences. As Indian army zeroed on them and their was heavy exchange of fire in between the NLF and Indian army in Kunial village. Maqbool Bhat and a member of NLF Mir Ahmad was captured. They both were found guilty and was charged with sabotaging and terrorist activities and received death penalties but they escaped in December in 1968 from Srinagar Jail and reached Azad Kashmir in the January of 1969. The plebiscite front was hugely divided as the capture of Maqbool Bhat has brought the clandestine activities in the limelight. Nevertheless the group was banned and declared unconstitutional be Plebiscite front. On return to Pakistan Maqbool Bhat and several of his militants were detained and endured severe torture on suspicion of being double agent. The NLF activities did not stop and their was Ganga Plane hijacking (here is the link to that Ganga Hijacking) in 1971. The plane was hijacked in Srinagar with look alike explosives as hijackers were detained by the Border security forces of  India as they are crossing in with arms and ammunition's. The hijackers were let loose on a deal that they will reveal the locations of several other militants in the valley. The hijackers released all the passengers and burned down the plane. The main conspirators Hashim Quereshi and Ashraf Quershi was lauded as heroes by then Pakistan president Zulfikar Bhuto who personally was present on the airport. The India retaliated by banning all air traffic from Pakistan over India air space. The Pakistan also lead a single man investigation lead by the Justice Noorul Arifeen declared the hijacking as Indian conspiracy as citing the relations between Hashim Quershi and Indian authorities. It is ironic that Hashim Quershi was sentenced to seven years but Asharaf was released although he was equal contributor to the hijacking. Amnullah Khan was detained for 15 months on the suspicion of beigh Indian double agent by Pakistani authorities. Many of the NLF members were detained and tortured by pakistani and 13 of them received 14 years of jail terms. Later it is revealed by Abdul Khaliq Ansari, who was arrested and tortured, testified in the High Court that the Ganga hijacking had emboldened the people to question the corrupt practices of the Azad Kashmir leaders and, in reaction, the government arrested them and forced them to confess to being Indian agents. Maqbool bhat returned to India in 1976 and later arrested for robbing a bank in Kashmir and recived the second death sentence. As the arrest of Maqbool bhat happened NFL starts crumbling and Amnullah Khan moved to Birmingham and the plebiscite front next chapter starts from there and how they spilled blood and wreak havoc in Kashmir. Maqbool Bhat was hanged in Tihar Jail in 1984 and all the blood which was spilled by his organisation is avenged by the Indian authorities.