Ankhon dekha hal

Ankhon dekha hal (narration of eye-witnessed events) "Sarai' or "bungla" turned out to be the reason for bringing into prominence my village Kotla. Originally built as an encampment on the way to Kashmir by the Mughals, later used by British for similar purposes or even just for a 'sarkari afser' staying overnight on his way to some place. It was otherwise an empty place. As the Kashmir struggle started catching up momentum one day I found villagers getting together there for plans to attack Bhimber (A small town of Kashmir nine miles Northwest of Kotla). My sister and brother-in-law who lived there (A Vet. Surgeon) had already moved out along with children and were with us in Kotla. Rajah's 'dogra fauj' had a fortress in Bhimber. 'Fighting forces' developed with some army personel on vacation or the retired ones with guns, others just in there for 'booty' etc. but ready to go equipped with 'dang' (Staff) or 'berchha'(spear or lance) or 'koharri'(axe) with "mundassa" (Head-wear of cloth) and of course 'Allah-o-akber" The villagers were instructed NOT to shout takbir until they have reached on 'top' of the enemy. What I heard the next day, they could not contain themselves giving the Dogras enough time to get ready for defence--result was they came back in the evening woth lot of losses and no gain. Kotla had a small dispensary and a (LSMF) doctor also that got to work. Sort of mini MASH you may say. Planning restarted soon and eventually one day they were succesful. Soon after that "Sarhadi Mujahideen" started coming in large groups by the time these expeditions advanced to Mirpur. After that advance was going on to Srinagar when "jang-bandi' orders were 'issued'. On the other front Mujahideen were close to Jammu (northeast to Kotla) and would have taken along with Srinagar if fighting had not been stopped for another week (my guess). As stated above, the fighting forces consisted of several types of people, the Kashmiris, the 'Punjabis' (many of them retired faujis) of various villages around there, sarhadi pathans and some Pakistani faujis on vacation (from their services) I remember one Pathan brought the body of his son(shaheed) from Mirpur proudly presenting 36 bullets in his chest, as he had played a significant role in getting the 'faseel' of Mirpur Qila. After India had taken 'possession' of Kashmir frequent bombing had started in Kashmiri areas near the Pakistani borders which were crossed several times by the Indian airforce jets. A couple of miles from our village, there was a grove of trees where "mujahideen' were taking cover from these bullets and bombs when a pathan's rifle hit some vulnerable part of one of the jets and it was downed (Yes, that was INside Pakistani territory, actually not too far from the village of "Aachh-Gochhia Lohar" as we called him whom you know now as "Alam Lohar"the famed 'Jugni' singer). The Pilot jumped out of the downed aircraft totting his pistol, (not hurt bad). The Mujahid asked him to throw away his pistol or face death. He was caught alive and brought to our village from where he was to be taken over by the Pakistan Government/Army for exchange of 'prisoners'. I saw him, a well-built youngman of not very dark color but appeared to be south Indian. Because of these Indian AF jet incursions Pakistani Army came in. They occupied the 'bungla' and soon established anti-aircraft guns all around our village (and other villages near the Kashmir borders) Then the bombing stopped at least in Pakistani territory. This was the first time I saw the 'caterpillars' arriving in advance to make roads etc. We, the children were so excited to see the initial works of the army Mechanical Engineers. In those days we played less and snooped around more, for 'news' everywhere. Soon the army 'things' became common in our village, and as the 'faujis' proved to be good customers, the shops of all kinds started multiplying. Although the army eventually left the border area, Kotla never looked back, with the result that today, it is a big business center and a couple of banks (branches) to support. Last time I visited Bhimber was when some great leader (?president) of Azad Kashmir was vising there (Sardar, ? the name has slipped from my mind about '49-50) I went with another friend of mine on the bicycle and the roads were unmetalled. It started raining while we were going down a hill and I slipped. The front wheel got twisted. We waited until a truck passed and gave us lift to Bhimber (we were close). There, a cycle repair man helped me out with very little money. So we had fun, listened to the 'Taqrir" and came back home at night safe and sound. The Bungla was the place where a large 'jalsa' was arranged when Mian Mumtaz Daultana came for 'taqrir' and a Malik Saheb (was my teacher) read out the "sipasnama" in which he pointed out rather meaningfully: "Naumeed na ho insay ay rahber-e-farzana--- kamkosh to hain laikin bezauq nahin rahi".