Maqbool Bhat ,this name  for many like me in kashmir generally hear on 11 feb each year either from headlines (Kashmir shuts in memory of Maqbool Bhat hanging) or from the deserted roads or just as a holiday.The image of Maqbool in public memory of Kashmiris is that he was a martyr for the cause of Azadi . Indian government hanged Maqbool Bhat on 11 February and to this day the hanging and the resultant armed political movement in Kashmir vows by Maqbool’s vision and sacrifice. Every anniversary of his hanging in Kashmir is Somehow seen as a state-wide shutdown this is how we remember this great man's hanging(Martyrdom).
Recently i a came across a  blog  Maqbool Reborn(link➥ ) after reading few of letters of Maqbool Bhat and his escape to Azad Kashmir (link➥ )  Reading his  escape to Azad kashmir is a thrilling read ,it tells you a lot about him while his letters (link➥ ) tell you more about his vision and his clarity of thought about kashmir 
Maqbool Bhat was born ( February 18, 1938) and brought up in a era of Kashmir’s history, when feudalism and slavery were challenged and resisted by Kashmiri people, paving way for a short but definitive period of people’s movement.The seeds of independence were sown in Maqbool through the treatment he and lakhs of Kashmiris faced, first by the Dogra regime, and then by actions of the twin dispensation of newly Independent states of India and Pakistan. Maqbool was the product of this people’s movement and what he saw, felt and thought enabled him to envision a dream which still remains unfulfilled to millions of Kashmiris around the world: the dream of an independent and prosperous Jammu and Kashmir. For his staunch advocacy of Kashmiri nationalism, he suffered imprisonment and torture in both Indian and Pakistani jails.He later also co-founded the National Liberation Front, which was meant to act as the armed wing of the Plebiscite Front.
.Maqbool, was ingenious strategist and adventurist.He masterminded the hijacking and of  an Indian Airlines plane on 30 January 1971 (Ganga) en route from Srinagar to Jammu and brought the plane to Lahore, Pakistan. The Indian Airlines flight was carrying thirty people including crew members. After landing on Lahore Airport .he  demanded the release of about two dozen political prisoners of the Jammu Kashmir Nationalist Liberation Front (JKNLF) in Indian  prisons, political asylum in Pakistan and guarantee from the Indian Government that there relatives in Srinagar, will not be hurt in anyway.Maqbool Bhat was  firstly praised as heroes and freedom fighters, but when Pakistan learned that he demands an independent and sovereign Jammu and Kashmir, which included Pakistan Administered Kashmir as well, Maqbool and hundreds of other members of JKNLF were arrested and interrogated in Shahee Qila, Lahore and Dolayee Camp Muzaffarabad.

 Later he and five others   were tried in a Special Court of Pakistan under the charges of collaboration with the Indian intelligence services.Maqbool Bhat  said in a Special Court of Pakistan: “I have disliked self-praise but now when my role is being distorted, deliberately, I am forced to claim that at every stage of my life, I have not only supported the peoples struggle against exploitation and oppression but always actively participated in. I have consciously chosen this role for myself because I see it as Sunnah of Prophets (pbuh) and it is a way of revolutionaries. I have no doubt about the success of this role and the welfare it brings for the people.”After his release Maqbool Butt once again crossed over to the Indian occupied Kashmir with few of his men  in May 1976. Within a few days of crossing they were spotted and arrested by the Indian forces. In 1978 the Indian Supreme Court restored death sentence on Maqbool Bhat and he was transferred to Delhi’s Tihar Prison. After eight long years in prison Maqbool Butt was hanged on February 11, 1984 in haste to avenge the killing of an Indian diplomat in Birmingham by then a group ‘Kashmir Liberation Army’
      Maqbool Bhat during his political struggle was tried, imprisoned and tortured several times as a ‘Pakistan agent’ by the Indian government and as an ‘Indian agent’ by the Pakistan rulers.


⤷MUST READ


SOME OF HIS THOUGHTS FROM HIS  INTERVIEWS,LETTERS .

 Dr. Farooq Haider once said that he remembered his answer to one child who asked him how to be free.
  • Maqbool Bhat told him, “When you can make yourself believe that you are free, you are free.” About Azaadi, which had become a popular word on the streets of Srinagar after his martyrdom but of which no one knew what it actually meant for Kashmir, he said: For us, “Azaadi means not just getting rid of foreign occupation of our beloved motherland but also to remove hunger, poverty, ignorance and disease and to overcome economic and social deprivation. One day, we shall achieve that Azaadi.”
  • Maqbool Bhat also said: “The oppressed one comes out victorious in his fight against the oppressor and the building of oppression has to come down sooner or later because of the revolutionary struggle of the masses of the people and I always stood by the side of downtrodden in their fight and struggle against the exploiters
  • Maqbool Bhat also said: We must remember that only those people feel the pain in stories of repression that have themselves suffered or fought against it. The hard-hearted people or those who have not suffered would not understand such stories.

  • A member of the audience asked a question in a conference  : You would require money to fight Kashmir’s war of independence. How are you going to get the financial resources? Who is going to provide you the resources?
    Maqbool Bhat replies: I have already submitted to you that the war of liberation cannot be fought by beggars or by those who seek aid from others. Freedom fighters are characterised by the grace of the Mu’min. They need to be pious Muslims. They must conform to the standards of true believers. A  Mu’min never begs. We have to rely on our resources. I would like to elaborate here. If you think that Kashmir’s freedom struggle can be fought with the help of Pakistani money, Indian money, American money or any other country’s resources, then you are only deluding yourself. Kashmir’s is a war to reclaim the home of Kashmiris and it must be run with our own money. We cannot fight our war of freedom if we rely on the resources of others. Because finance is the lifeline of any resistance movement and if your lifeline is in the hands of others then you are completely dependent on them. They can sever your lifeline anytime and cripple your movement.
  • Bhat's lawyer was , Muzaffar Beg .During one of these meetings Butt reportedly said: “I want a fair trial for my people and myself. But I don’t expect to get it in this subcontinent. 



Foot note;The  pioneer of the Kashmiri Freedom Struggle was born with ideas that were no different than the ideas of other great revolutionaries like Che Guevara and Ho Chi Min.Maqbool Bhat was born at a place where that  even today seems to be a hundred years behind with bad roads, no running water and darkness in the absence of electricity.ONCE AGAIN I AM OF THE SAY "IT IS AN IDEA THAT REVOLUTIONISES   THE STRUGGLE "