Babara Masscre
by Deeva Khore
August 12th 1948, a day that went down in the annals of Pashto history as a dark and bleak day. Heroes and villains both were born this day, some to be forever glorified for the ultimate sacrifice any human can give, and others to be always remembered for their treachery.
A day when peaceful protesters marked with blood the very ground they stood on. A day when they stood what for they believed was their right, the right to congregate, to demonstrate and to question their representatives, the right to a trial, this was after all why they with their undying ideologies had split India into two. To raise their voice against what they thought was wrong. It was a day when they would heavily pay the price for their core beliefs. Men who had been in the forefront for the fight of this country called Pakistan, a country they considered their own nation.
Rewarded with the unjust bounty of having their lands seized and unconstitutional detainment, they were being silenced with the very shackles that they had so bravely fought to free themselves of. Sadly this time it was not the British but one of their own, a coward by the name of Qayyum.
To protest against the arrests of Bacha Khan, Dr Khan Saib, Qazi Attah-ullah, Arbab Abdul Ghafoor Khan and other notables, it was decided that the Khudai Khidmatgars would in a peaceful procession march from Charsadda to Babra on12th august 1948. The march was announced ahead of time in the major newspapers, all participants were told to congregate at Charsadda empty handed and to peacefully march to the Babra grounds. There seemed to be no objection from the government, but on the 12th, they surrounded the Babra grounds with militia units, police forces, armored v…ehicles and tanks.
The men started out from Charsadda empty and walked toward s the grounds of Babra, they were informed of the police presence at some point, yet they believed that they were safe. They were after all the men who had sworn, “As Allah needs no service, and I shall serve Him by serving His creatures selflessly. I shall never use violence. I shall not retaliate or take revenge, and I shall forgive anyone who indulges in high-handedness and excesses against me….I shall lead a simple life, do well and refrain from wrong doing”.
When they reached Babra the police opened fire and these brave men kept marching. After 45 minutes when the shooting stopped and the smoke cleared there were by one estimate, about five to six hundred dead and a 1000 to 1200 injured. Some eyewitness put the death toll at 1300. Of the two hundred and fifty bodies that were thrown into the river, many were never recovered. The real number of dead may never be known for what followed was even more inhumane, and many chose not to disclose who in their families had perished.
Women of the village seeing their men razed to the ground put Qurans on their heads and rushed into the foray screaming for the firing to stop, but their pleas fell on deaf ears and were as mercilessly shot and killed. Unarmed women and men were killed regardless of their age or sex, regardless of the fact that they were only asking for a basic human right. The right to be heard.
These atrocities did not stop here, and fully knowing how the dead are respected and afforded the courtesy of a burial, the savages started to a throw bodies into the river Kabul. No mercy was shown to the injured either and many drowned. As soon as the police departed the rest of the bodies were quickly claimed and removed by their loved ones and taken to Charsadda bazaar. Emotions were hard to control as the crowd turned on those that supported the government, but cooler heads prevailed and we can proudly say that the Pakhtun acted with honor that day.
Doctors were forbidden to treat the injured, those that did risk it were arrested and their properties confiscated. Incarcerated for showing some humanity on this inhumane day, these decent people suffered for being true to their Hippocratic Oath.
Raids followed and people found with anyone injured in their house or if their family members had died were fined for the bullets that the government had spent to kill them. People were fined outrageous sums and property was confiscated. Those who had nothing to their name were not spared either, they were deprived of their children.
What makes this sad is that it was not a foreign occupying force but their native country that had done this to them. The very country that was responsible for their safety, had let them down miserably and showed no remorse for it. No one should ever have to suffer such an indignity.
There are no monuments to mark where the hundreds of fallen, there is no mention of them in school history books. There is no park or not even a plant where one can sit and contemplate what these brave men and women died for. Most children grow up not knowing what or where Babra is. We should arrange school trips to Babra and add a chapter our history books, for this is after all our history and our blood that colored the ground that fateful day. We will wear our scars with honor and pride.