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

Islamic Jihadcases more than 85 percent of the urban properties, belonged to Hindus.’ 597 In NWFP, the minorities(Hindus, Sikhs, Christians) constituted only 8.2 percent of the population, but the Hindus alone paid 80percent of the income-tax of the province; in Lahore, non-Muslim minorities owned 80 percent of theproperty. 598 The Muslim violence, it seems, was unleashed with a premeditated intent of capturing the hugeHindu and Sikh properties and businesses by driving them out. The Muslim League propaganda that ifPakistan was theirs, so were the properties of non-Muslims has been cited above. Bengal Congress leaderKiron Shankar Roy, in a press statement on 22 July 1947, referred to the expectation of East Bengal Muslimsas thus: ‘‘There is a notion among ordinary Muslims in the Eastern Pakistan region that after August 15, thehouses and land of the Hindus there will automatically pass into the possession of Muslims, and that theHindus will be a sort of subject race under the Muslims of that area.’’ 599 This attitude applied moreemphatically to the rampaging Muslims of Punjab, where ‘each one of them thought that he had become aNawab (provincial governor).’ 600Who bears the responsibility?Clearly, the responsibility for the great human tragedy and suffering, engendered by the Partition, falls mostlyon Muslims. They started the secessionist movement in the first place; and they were generally the instigatorsof the violence and eviction that followed. They started a campaign of gory violence a year ahead of thePartition in order to press their demand for creating Pakistan. They engaged in much more vicious violence astheir demand for Pakistan was met and the Partition eventually took place. The Direct Action, according toMuslim League and mosque propaganda, was a Jihad, the re-enactment of Muhammad’s Jihadi Battle ofBadr. The overall motive of the Muslim violence was to cleanse the newly created Islamic "Land of the Pure"from the filthy infidels. This fitted perfectly well with Prophet Muhammad’s example of founding the firstIslamic state in Arabia by mass eviction and slaughter of the Jews and extermination of the Polytheists.In the course of the Partition in August, riots took place everywhere inside West Pakistan. In EastPakistan (East Bengal), violence was tactfully prevented in the days of the Partition, but harrowing mobviolence against Hindus returned in February 1950. This violence was instigated, over Pakistan’s failed attackin Kashmir, by the Pakistani press, radio and Muslim leaders—calling Hindus "saboteurs", "enemy agents","fifth columnists" and "disloyal elements" amongst all kinds of false propaganda. On February 6 and 7, RadioPakistan announced: ‘‘Brethren! You have heard about the inhuman atrocities that are now being perpetratedin India and West Bengal. Will you not gather strength?’’ Such false stories were also splashed over the pagesof newspapers in East Bengal. Pakistan Radio announced that 10,000 Muslims were killed in Calcutta, whilePashban, a Bengali daily in Dhaka, raised the figure to 100,000. 601 Such false propaganda instigated Muslimsto unleash harrowing mob violence against Hindus all over Eastern Pakistan. Mass murder, rapes, abductionof women, mass conversion, arson and plunder took place, which cannot be accommodated here in detail. Foran example, Jawaharlal Nehru gave a figure of Hindu casualty of 600 to 1,000 in Dhaka, which was lowerthan the true figure; in the villages of Rajapur Police Station, some 150 Hindus were killed and the rest wereconverted to Islam; some 1.5 million Hindus fled from East Bengal to India, according to a figure given byNehru. 602597. Kamra, p. 3598. Khosla, p. 120,258599. Hindustan Times, 22 July 1947600. Civil and Military Gazette, Lahore, 30 December 1948601. Kamra, p. 55,57602. Ibid, p. 59,66,105185