islamic-jihad-legacy-of-forced-conversion-imperialism-slavery

Islamic JihadIn the towns and villages of Rawalpindi District, Hindus and Sikhs suffered the worst of pre-Partitionviolence: slaughter, rape, enslavement, mass conversion, plunder and arson. Only a few examples of thesewill be included in the short space here. On March 6, Muslim mobs in Rawalpindi started attacking Hindu andSikh houses, setting them on fire, butchering the inmates, forcibly converting them to Islam and cutting offthe hair and beard of many Sikhs. In some areas, Sikhs and Hindus were in equal strength and theycounterattacked causing substantial loss on the Muslim side. Muslims called in reinforcements fromneighboring villages, outnumbering the Hindus and Sikhs. The killing and pillage continued for three days.On March 7 or 8, Muslim League invited eleven Hindu and Sikh representative for forming a PeaceCommittee for establishing peace and harmony. Muslim mobs seized them, killing seven on the spot; twowere able to escape.In the villages of Rawalpindi, armed Muslims—shouting blood-curdling slogans and beatingdrums—approached a non-Muslim village, surrounded it, looted the properties and killed a few residents,terrorizing the rest to embrace Islam. They looted homes and enslaved and carried away the young andbeautiful girls and women; the young women were often molested and raped in the open, while mobs wentabout burning the houses and shops. In desperation, records Khosla, 576Some women would commit suicide or suffer death at the hands of their relations with stoicindifference; others would jump into wells or be burnt alive uttering hysterical cries. The menwould come out and meet death in a desperate sally against the marauders… Some villages werecompletely wiped out. Houses and shops were looted and then burnt down and demolished.Conversions saved the lives of many but not their property. Refusal to accept Islam broughtcomplete annihilation. The men were shot or put to the sword. In some cases, small childrenwere thrown in cauldrons of boiling oil. In one village men and women who refused to embraceIslam were collected together and after a ring of brambles and firewood had been placed aroundthem they were burnt alive. A woman threw her four-month old baby to save it from burning.The infant was impaled upon a spear and thrown into the fire.On March 10, a Muslim mob from neighboring communities swarmed Doberan, a village of 1,700 residents,the majority of whom were Sikhs. The Hindus and Sikhs took shelter in a local gurdwara, as Muslimsplundered the deserted houses and set them on fire. When Muslims attacked the gurdwara, besieged Sikhscounterattacked with a few firearms they had, but suffered heavy casualties and soon ran out of ammunition.The Muslim raiders offered them safety, if handed over the arms. Some three hundred of them came out,surrendering the weapons. They were placed in one Barkat Singh’s house, but at night, kerosene was pouredinto it and set on fire, burning the surrendered inmates alive. The next morning, Muslim attackers broke thedoors of the gurdwara; the remaining Sikh inmates came out wielding swords and perished to the last man.There were numerous such horrid incidents. And these were only the pre-Partition violence. Terror,massacre, plunder, enslavement, mass conversion, rapes and burning of Hindu and Sikh lives and propertiesof many folds greater ferocity and quantum came in late July onwards as the Partition of Pakistan waseventually agreed upon. The details of these too-numerous later incidents cannot be included here. Suffice itto say that, through the days of the Partition well until early next year, Muslims unleashed violence andbloodshed on the Hindus and Sikhs in every part of present-day Pakistan, where Muslims constituted 60–92percent of the population. Gurbachan Singh Talib in his book, Muslim League Attack on Sikhs and Hindus inthe Punjab 1947, has listed 592 instances of major attacks in Punjab and other districts of greater Pakistan—all initiated by Muslims under no provocations of similar kinds. 577576. Ibid, p. 107–08577. Talib SGS (1991) Muslim League Attack on Sikhs and Hindus in the Punjab 1947 (compilation), Voice of India,Appendix, Atrocities, chapters 9-11179