Amanullah Khan

We hear about Kashmir and its freedom struggle only in part. As the flickering pictures flit by, we do not really gain an in-depth understanding of who the people engaged in a bitter struggle that has continued since 1947 are, or what their sometimes divergent schools of thought on the liberation of Kashmir may be. One of these figures who will always form a part of the history of Kashmir, but is known only vaguely beyond its frontiers, was Amanullah Khan who died at the age of 82 at a Rawalpindi hospital on Tuesday. Amanullah Khan had suffered a prolonged ailment. The question though is whether his legacy will live on. Like other members of the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front, the group he founded in 1977 while in London, Amanullah Khan advocated for an independent Kashmir, not tied in to either the territory of Pakistan or of India. For these reasons, he was not popular with the governments of either of the two countries and through most of his life was seen as a Pakistani agent and Muslim fundamentalist in India, and an Indian agent in Pakistan, where he lived after migrating to the country in 1952.

Amanullah Khan’s association with Maqbool Butt, hanged in Tihar jail in India in 1984, added to the controversies surrounding him. Maqbool, also labeled in the same way, was executed for anti-state activities in India but also faced cases in Pakistan. Like his comrade, Amanullah Khan belonged to neither country. He held throughout his life that his loyalty lay only with Kashmir and its people. He struggled hard for their right to choose their own destiny, attending numerous conferences and serving terms in jail for this belief. He was popular in Kashmir, almost a mythical figure among some circles within the disputed territory, and his legend will live on in more ways than one for a long time after he has gone. Many believe the kind of solution offered by the JKLF may eventually turn out to be the only option for the Kashmiri people. Of course, there are many dimensions to this. Only time will tell how today’s politics shapes the territory and how Amanullah Khan will be remembered in the history of a territory that has seen continuous death and severe hardship as a result of historical factors beyond the control of its people.