The 14th death anniversary of Abdul Hamid Nizami, a Kashmir freedom movement worker was observed in Azad Jammu and Kashmir on Friday.
Nizami was a pioneer amongst Kashmiri freedom fighters as a member of the Muslim Conference, launching a struggle against the Dogra regime and Indian forces which annexed the state of Jammu and Kashmir to India in 1947.
His most prominent assignment was as the news editor of Sada-e-Kashmir Radio broadcast from an undisclosed location in occupied Kashmir in 1947 to promote the Pakistan movement and the Kashmiris’ struggle for freedom.
Nizami led many delegations overseas to present the Kashmiris’ point of view. He was fluent in English, Urdu, Kashmiri, Persian, Arabic and Punjabi. He wanted the implementation of the United Nations’ resolutions on Kashmir which provide for a free, fair and impartial plebiscite in the state of Jammu and Kashmir and favoured the state’s accession to Pakistan.
A journalist by profession, he edited popular dailies like Hamdard, Inqilab and Srinagar. After migrating to Pakistan, he worked for the Pakistan Times and Imroze. Later in life, he edited the weekly Daur-e-Jadeed, recognised as a symbol of the Kashmiris’ struggle and widely circulated on both sides of the Line of Control.
Forced to migrate to Pakistan because of the difficulties created by Maharaja Hari Singh, Nizami moved his family, but he was arrested from Sheirgarhi by the government in 1947. He and his colleagues were jailed for defending the Kashmiris’ right to self-determination.
Sentenced to death on charges of high treason, he was set free two years later on condition that he go into exile as a result of a pact signed for the exchange of political prisoners. He moved to Sialkot, where he passed away on January 13, 1998.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 14th, 2012.
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