Hyderabad Liberation - 11 |
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Hyderabad Liberation - 11 |
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Part XI The Razaakars began to move to forward areas of the province and Gulburga became their major bastion. Lakhs of Razaakars converged into Gulburga and Qasim Razwi came down from Hyderabad to Gulburga to talk to them. Incidentally, the Nizam came every year to attend the urs of famous sufi saint Khwaja Bande Nawaz at Gulburga but not once did he get the rousing welcome that Qasim Razwi got here. The cries of " Shah-E-Dakkan", " Mujahid-E-Azam" rent the air as Qasim Razwi was taken in a long procession in the city of Gulburga. Addressing the massive gathering, Qasim Rizwi called for " Lal Kile pe Asafi Parcham" ( The nizam's flag will fly on redfort) and called on the Razaakars to defeat the Indian Army and march to Delhi!! The same day, a train was attacked at Ganagapur station and the Razaakars killed in cold blood the Hindus, Sikhs and Moderate Muslims who were travelling in the train. Many women were molested and children were neither spared. This inhuman act spread terror in the entire Nizam province and Qasim Rizwi was the only happy person around. But happiness did not last for long, when defeated Razaakars from yelsanga came running to meet Qasim Rizwi!! Thanks to the information passed and the support provided by the Mundargi youths, a contigent of Indian Army crushed the large camp of Razaakars at Yelsanga and Qasim Rizwi was rattled by this defeat. He left for Hyderabad immediately and soon the pro-Nizam officers began to desert thier positions and fled for safety to Hyderabad. The desperate Razaakars declared in Gulburga that they would fight to finish and were not scared of death and even before they die, they will kill many people who opposed the Nizam- irrespective of the community they belong to. News spread that the entire city of Gulburga will be put on fire by the Razaakars in night and the people were shell shocked. Fortunately mother nature intervened and it was torrential rains in night and continued the next day too. The tank near Sharanbasaweshwar temple overflew and it was water water everywhere!! Good news came to the people of Gulburga that the stronghold of Razaakars at Naladurga was over run by the Indian Army from the direction of Sonapur. The Indian army was now moving towards Gulburga from the Malgeri-Humnabad direction. The Razaakars panicked and began to flee for life. The popular joke about them was that one Razaakar who was running with a .303 rifle in one hand and Sten gun in other was stopped and asked why he is running, instead of fighting. He replied " I have a gun in each hand and how can I fight?" After a surprise resistance at Aland, the Indian army marched into Gulburga and was accorded a rousing welcome by the people. It is when the pro-nizam leaders from congress, the Razaakar leaders and others turned coats and were the first ones to hoist the Indian Tricolour on thier buildings and homes and were on the forefront to greet the Indian Army!!! Its these leaders and some so called leaders who claim to have fought along with the Mundargi youths, who started the " Jaihind" organisations which began to collect money from public - to help the youths of Mundargi camp and thier families!! The retreating razaakars attacked the Basaveshwar temple at Kodekal in Surpur Taluk on the belief that the temple had a sacred book which forecast the fall of Nizam rule!!! The angry priest went on hunger strike with a vow that he will not break the strike till the Nizam lost his power!! The people turned against the Razaakars and began to attack them wherever they sighted them. The march of Indian army continued towards Hyderabad and when it was about 25 Kms from Hyderabad the Nizam declared an unconditional surrender and his son came down to sign the agreement to surrender!! Thus ended the long struggle for liberation of Hyderabad and the people of north Karnataka under the Nizam province could breath the air of freedom. |
| -Basavaraj Koppal |