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| Nov 12, 1947: When Pak intruders strormed Rajouri | | At 86, 'horrifying trauma' of dreadful night still haunts surviving woman victim | | EARLY TIMES REPORT
Jammu, May 20: The heroic resistance of Dogra soldiers
notwithstanding, Pakistani intruders stormed Rajouri during the
dreadful night of November 12, 1947. The night changed the hamlet for good. The darknight ended but did not bring any light for the hapless people who were held hostage. Men were axed to death and women consumed posion to save their honour. Most of the women were distributed amongst the tribesmen. Bimla Devi, now 86 was one of them.
Bimla Devi recalls, “I was just 22 that time. On November 11, 1947 the atmosphere in Rajouri was fearsome. The local Tehsildar had inputs about the imminent tribal raid, as the raiders had surrounded the hilly terrain from all sides. There was no escape route from the area and on the intervening night of November 11-12 tension started brewing up but we were helpless”.
The night still haunts Devi. According to her around 7000 Hindus,even some from Poonch district and the areas in the vicinity of Rajouri, had come to the Tehsildar’s office for shelter. “Thousands of innocent men, women and children were killed. We could not do anything”, she said.
Bimla paused for a moment most probably to muster courage to narrate the horrifying story. “Raiders entered the town after a handful of army men of Maharaja and local Rashtriya Swyamsevak Sangh (RSS) cadre perished in the gunfight. Intruders were merciless and were continuously firing bullets at the Tehsildar’s office where some people had taken shelter. Some people were killed in the firing. A bullet brushed my face and I started bleeding” she said.
“Rajouri was completely occupied on the morning of November 12 and the raiders ordered the Hindu men to gather in airfield. They were made to stand in queues from where they were taken to some point and mercilessly axed to death. Around 5000 Hindu men were killed that day. They chopped off their heads. Not a single bullet was used to kill the Hindus. My husband was also killed in that carnage. I was just 22 years old and had a daughter”, narrates Bimla Devi, with gloom.
“The bloodshed lasted for many days and whosoever opposed, whether Hindu or Muslim, was axed to death.” she says.
Controlling her sobs, she said,” The most tragic part was that after killing the males, they ordered the women and children to stand in queues and then accordingly distributed the women amongst themselves.
I was also one among those women”, she adds “There was bloodshed every where and many women sacrificed their
lives to save themselves. Many women consumed poison and many burnt themselves. As there was no other alternative, so some local people had arranged poison for the womenfolk to consume it if the raiders came near’, she says.
“I was lucky enough that even after a bullet wound on my face and without any medication for days together, I survived. I along with most of the women was kept in the building which is now Rajouri district hospital” she says.
“After that area was set free from the intruders, the people who
survived moved towards different destination. Some came to Jammu and were given accommodation in the custodian houses, and those having any relative somewhere took shelter in their houses. It took decades together to come out of that trauma and to live a normal life, but life means to live in any circumstances and that what we did”, she says.
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