The merciless British military let the women and children burn alive in the homes during the operation and sprayed bullets on them when they tried to save their life.
The history of British atrocities against the Hur community is as old as the conquest of Sindh by the former in 1843. As the Hurs were the only community considered to be a big threat to the colonial rule, the British started intimidating and victimizing them on one or the other pretext since beginning. And when the community people retaliated, the British authorities launched massive operation against them setting ablaze their homes, villages, crops and impounding the livestock, which was the only source of their livelihood. Since the Hur community people lived in small villages scattered in the area, they were made to abandon their ancestral villages and shift to bigger villages so that they could be put under strict vigil. The barbaric actions started especially when Lucas was posted as Collector of the Thar & Parkar district in 1895. Not only the villages were set on fire, but the Lucas ordered the people not to graze the cattle in Makhi Dhand (Lake) area. The British deployed two battalions of military in Sanghar and Tharparkar areas, which didn’t spare even the non-Hur population. It was the period when Bachu Badshah and Piru Vizier had waged war against alien rulers.
A scared child was crying and since his mother feared to be caught by the military, she put a piece of cloth in the child’s mouth. After sometime when she took the cloth out, the child had expired.
According to researchers, the merciless British military, led by Lucas, let the women and children burn alive in the homes during the operation and sprayed bullets on them when they tried to save their life. In one instance, when the villagers saw the military heading to their village, they took their women and children to escape to the jungle. The military set ablaze the entire village reducing it to ashes along with cattle and grain. Some of the Sepoys chased the villagers who took refuge in jungle. A scared child was crying and since his mother feared to be caught by the military, she put a piece of cloth in the child’s mouth. After sometime when she took the cloth out, the child had expired.
In another instance, the military besieged the Bhongar Marri village of Sanghar where they shot Bachu Marri, a lame person, in his leg, and then put him on a heap of firewood and set him on fire to die.
Another village – Kandero Wasan burnt by the military belonged to Syed Peeral Shah, Syed Muhsin Shah and Syed Imam Bux Shah (Uncle of Syed Mureed Shah who during the last phase of Hur Movement took part in killing Khairpur police Nazim Ghulam Rasool Shah, and was later arrested and hanged in Sukkur jail). When the village was set on fire, no male member of Syed family was present there. The women and the children couldn’t escape and died. In all nine persons burnt alive including wives of Syed Ali Shah, Syed Muhsin Shah, Syed Peeral Shah, mother of Syed Pinjal Shah and children, according to Syed Imam Bux Shah, son of Syed Muhsin Shah, who expired at the age of 110 years.
One Ameer Fakir Wasan used to live in his home at some distance south of Kandero Wasan village. The military surrounded the house after a few days and put the house on fire when only the female members and a lame person Misri were there. The panicked women and children rushed out of home but the lame person’s life was saved by a person of Raotiani village, who in fact was the informer of military. The military officer and Sepoys then mounted on horses and left the area laughing at the helpless women and children.
The British forces also reduced to ashes entire villages of Chotiyrion Sharif, Wadhan Jo Goth of Abupota clan, Khehor Goth of Bhanbhro community located at Mirpur Khas Road, houses of Auladi Fakir Mugheripoto near Raotiani, Bharri village and several other villages. When the Wadhan Jo Goth was set ablaze, a woman was coming back after buying ration from Sanghar. When she saw flames, she rushed to village where the villagers were crying looking at their abodes reducing to ashes. The woman ran to her family members putting the ration at one side but the military burnt that ration too.
There are hundreds of stories of British tyranny perpetrated on Hur and non-Hur communities during 107 years of their rule in Sindh, which they had turned into battlefield.
“The Hurs had staged peaceful demonstrations when the British took Pir Sibghatullah Shah-II to Karachi and formally arrested him. But since the foreign rulers wanted to crush the ‘Hur Jama’at’, they launched oppressive actions against them and in result the entire area from Sukkur to Sanghar, Saeedabad to Khadro, Hathoongo to Shahdadpur and from Jaisalmir to Chotiyarion turned into battlefield,” Wali Dad Wali, who served in British Army, writes in his memoirs. “On one hand, the British Army set ablaze the villages of Hur community and shot dead scores of innocent people, and on the other, the Hurs, in retaliation, eliminated the informers of government, derailed the trains and set ablaze police and military vehicles plunging them in trenches dug especially for the purpose under guerrilla war tactics,” he recalls.
Thousands of men from Brohi, Baloch and other tribes were recruited from Jacobabad, Gandawa, Noshki and Hazara. They were imparted extensive training for three months how to fight in desert, hilly areas and jungles.
Wali Dad Wali, who joined Sindh Police Rangers (Rifles) as Quarter Master in May 1942, writes that this paramilitary force, headed by Commanding Officer Col. H. P. Thomas, was raised to crush the Hurs. “Thousands of men from Brohi, Baloch and other tribes were recruited from Jacobabad, Gandawa, Noshki and Hazara. They were imparted extensive training for three months how to fight in desert, hilly areas and jungles.”
“The new force was dispatched to Sinjhoro in July where the Punjab Regiment was already stationed. The military and policemen were seen everywhere in the town. I met a shopkeeper Muhammad Salih, who told that police have made miserable the life of innocent people, as they declare any person as ‘Hur’, who does not bribe them, and by this act a large number of non-Hur people have been arrested,” he writes.
“On 25th July, two peasants were arrested and sentenced to three year imprisonment without trial by court martial on a fake complaint of robbery by a Hindu. The fact was that the Hindu, doing the business of moneylending, had demanded returning full amount (Rs.200) they owed to him, but since they were poor and couldn’t pay, he lodged fake complaint of robbery at Company Commander’s office.
At least two to four military courts, consisting of four Army officers, were established in each taluka, where all kinds of cases including that of theft were tried with no right of engaging any defence counsel, and calling the defence witness.
“On 4th January 1943, we were ordered to proceed to Makhi forest. When we took a road leading to Sanghar from Shahdadpur, we saw the horrifying scenes of destruction – the burnt villages, trees and the crops reduced to ashes. No person could be seen anywhere. All the area gave a desert look,” Wali Dad says.
I myself saw four Pathan Sepoys abusing and hitting ten young women who were going to bring water from a nearby pond. Some of the women looked hailing from well off families from the clothes they wore.
Writing about his memoirs about a concentration camp in Jhol, he says: “The camp with barbed wires all around it existed near Military’s Motor Transport Workshop. The old and young women, children were lodged in the camp guarded by the Pathan Sepoys. The women told me that the British Army destroyed their villages, killed and arrested their men and confined the women and children in this camp.” “I myself saw four Pathan Sepoys abusing and hitting ten young women who were going to bring water from a nearby pond. Some of the women looked hailing from well off families from the clothes they wore.”
A Zamindar of Tharparkar was also lodged in a small room near the post office. “I am disciple of Pir Sahib but am not indulged in any violence, but even then they have lodged me here,” he told Wali Dad.
“I then visited the Gurang bungalow near Sanghar, where the entire residential buildings were destroyed in bombardment. The forces had also set all the buildings on fire.”
Wali Dad Wali gave details of British force used in operation against the Hurs as under:
Airforce: 12 Squadron, 24 planes, 150 men
Infantry: 3 Divisions, 60, 000 Sepoys. Headquarter Hyderabad and Sukkur
Motor Transport Section: 600 Vehicles. Headquarter Shahdadpur and Keti.
Horse and Camel-mounted Army: 2400. Headquarter Jamrao Head and Hathongo
First time, the British Army used the parachutes in subcontinent by sending Gurkha battalion to the Makhi Dhand area to destroy the hideouts of Hurs. In the meantime, Kohat Brigade set the villages and houses falling on the way on fire.
Retired Major General Wasal Muhammad Khan, who was posted as senior Intelligence Officer of the force in Sindh in June 1942, in his articles published in Sindh Quarterly and in his autobiography states that their General Officer Commanding was F. S. Young, who was notorious criminal of England, and the British government had failed to arrest him. He was granted amnesty by the King Emperor on the condition that he would help the government crush the ‘dacoits’ in India.
“First time, the British Army used the parachutes in subcontinent by sending Gurkha battalion to the Makhi Dhand area to destroy the hideouts of Hurs. In the meantime, Kohat Brigade set the villages and houses falling on the way on fire. This created panic among the people while the Hurs launched attacks on villages to eliminate the informers. The Hurs termed those people ‘traitors’.
In the meantime, British airforce launched air attacks on villages with fire bombs and sprayed bullets with machine guns on the Hurs found anywhere in open area. The people wandering for water from one well to other were also targeted by the machine guns. It was the same time when Hyderabad Brigade was ordered to destroy Pir Kot in Pir Jo Goth to create panic.
“The actions were taken under a well-planned strategy aimed to defame the Pir with propaganda; infuriate the Ghazis to come out of hideouts and take revenge by launching retaliatory actions, and the British forces could eliminate them,” Wasal Muhammad Khan writes.
“There were a mosque and seminary inside the Pir Kot, therefore some portion of palace was demolished first with the help of labourers to avoid any damage to the mosque, and then the palace was blown up with dynamites,” he says.
Fakir Muhammad Suleman Wasan of village Bachal Wasan, near Sanghar, also recalled the British atrocities in an interview. “Thousands of Dogras, Gurkhas, Sikhs and Pathans were deployed in Sanghar district, especially in Makhi Forest area and around Gurang bungalow. They set ablaze entire villages, arrested and killed innocent villagers who took refuge in jungle due to panic created by the forces. They even burnt the grain stocks of villagers and took away the Jand (stone-made traditional wheat grinding apparatus) so that the villagers couldn’t use them. In certain cases the Jands were thrown in the wells. When the British forces set our village on fire, a villager tried to save a wheat bag but the Sepoys snatched and threw it in the fire. As the villagers had no food left to eat, we used to collect burnt grain and put it in water making it eatable.”
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A chapter from the book ‘Hur – The Freedom Fighter’, authored by Nasir Aijaz and published by Sindh Culture Department
