The first capital of Kashmir was established in a dense forest

After the partition in 1947, rebellions against the Dogra ruler of Jammu and Kashmir, Maharaja Hari Singh, in various parts of the state, and the invasion of Kashmir by tribals, the Maharaja’s control over the western part of Jammu and Kashmir was virtually lost and 24 In October, 1947, an interim ‘revolutionary’ government was established in these areas under the name of ‘Azad Government of the State of Jammu and Kashmir’.

This government started running the affairs of the state from the village Janjaal Hill in Tarar Khul area of ​​Poonch (present-day Sudhanoti district) as its capital.

Sardar Muhammad Ibrahim Khan was elected as the first president of this interim government. The government of Pakistan remained practically indifferent to this interim ‘revolutionary’ government for a long time. However, in 1948, the Government of Pakistan sent the well-known bureaucrat and writer Qudratullah Shahab as its representative as General Secretary or Chief Secretary.

In his book Shahab Nama, Qudratullah Shahab drew a map of the capital at that time as follows: ‘The capital of Kashmir was a small village on the top of a hill called Jangal Hill between Palindri and Tarar Khul, with two and a half, three dozen small villages. There were small houses. A few houses had government offices. The rest of the houses were used as residences of the president, ministers and other government employees.’

He further writes: ‘Here too I found a mud hut consisting of one room, in one corner of which was built an earthen stove as a kitchen. Office rooms were devoid of traditional equipment. There were no cabinets or shelves for files. Generally, stone slabs were worked by smoothing them. Depending on the weather, the practice of sitting outside in the shade of trees was also common.’

In this village called Janjal Hill, the structures and remains of many houses of this period are still there. Historians have written that this location was chosen because the village was surrounded by dense forest and was not visible from the surrounding area.

A local citizen, Sardar Masood Khan, told Independent Urdu: ‘It was a time of war and every day some Indian ship would come and bomb the area. Being a forest, this place was considered safe, so the Government Secretariat was established here.’

According to journalist and historian Sardar Salim Khan, there were six ministers in the cabinet of the first government and all of them made their offices and residences in different houses of the same village.

A meeting was being held in the Jama Masjid of Palindri Shahri. Sardar Muhammad Ibrahim Khan was addressing this meeting. A (Indian) ship came from Uri, when it saw the crowd there, it started bombarding and many people were injured. Sardar Ibrahim’s guards picked them up and took them down to the canal so they survived.

Salim explains that ‘(Maharaja) Hari Singh was the ruler of (Jammu and Kashmir). His government was established in Srinagar. They tried to eliminate Sardar Ibrahim in some way so that this movement ends.’

Qudratullah Shahab writes, ‘Throughout the day, the Indian bombers would come and go flying over us or from right and left and would return indiscriminately after dropping bombs on their targets. There was no provision for any kind of resistance or prevention on our part.’

With the cessation of hostilities in early 1949, the capital was shifted from Jangal Hill to Muzaffarabad. Qudratullah Shahab further writes, ‘Some offices were accommodated in the dilapidated rooms of the old Kachhari district and many tents were installed in the premises of the same building for the rest of the offices. A tent settlement was established on a mound nearby for the accommodation of government employees.

Till then telephone facility was not available in the free zone. In order to contact the federal capital Karachi, one had to go to Murree and talk to Karachi on the telephone. After the establishment of the capital at Muzaffarabad, telephone facility was provided in (Pakistan-administered) Kashmir on the special instructions of Sardar Abdul Rab Nishtar.