Fazl-e-Umar — Page 326
Fazle Umar 326 the accession of Kashmir. The number of Ahmadis serving in the Pakistan forces at the time, both as officers and other ranks, was much higher than their proportion in the population. Those of them who were serving in the units that were engaged in combat on the Kashmir border established an enviable record of good service and outstanding achievement in battle. The Community had suffered terribly in respect of personnel and resources in the tragic aftermath of the partition. Nevertheless, under the directions of the Khalifatul Masih, an entire battalion of Ahmadi volunteers was organised and was placed at the disposal of the Commander-in-Chief, for deployment on the Kashmir border in the late spring of 1948. It was called the Furqan Battalion and continued in active service on the Kashmir front till the cessation of hostilities on 1st January 1949. The entire cost of maintaining the Battalion at the front was borne by the Community. In a Friday sermon delivered by Hadhrat Mirza Tahir Ahmad, Khalifatul Masih IV [rh] on March 8, 1985 at the Fazl Mosque, London elaborated on the role played by the Community in Kashmir. He stated that at the time when organised efforts were being made by Pakistan for the freedom of Kashmir and the freedom forces were struggling on their own, Jama’at-e-Islami was issuing terrible fatwas and propagating that it was not jihad anymore. In other words, an oppressed country where the lives of Muslims were at stake, where Muslim countries from around the globe started taking steps to protect them; at that time, a fatwa was being published from Jama’at-e-Islami instructing not to go near Kashmir since it was not jihad. When Hadhrat Musleh Mau’ood [ra] announced the armed struggle for the libera- tion of Kashmir, some of the Ahmadis living in villages thought that it was an ordinary scheme and that it would not matter if one did not participate in it. They thought that if it were a religious scheme or a question of Community services then they would be ready but in the matter of Kashmir there were other Muslims who could fight for it.