The Riots of 1953 — Page 3
3 some of them broke off from the Congress. For some time this group of individuals was in a state of suspense. They had by their anti-Muslim activities come to be hated by the Muslim Commu- nity and became cut off from them. At the instance of Maulan a Zafar Ali Khan of Zamindar, 4 however, they formed themselves into a separate party and named it as “Majlis-i-Ahrar”. The object of this party, as declared by their acknowledged leader, Ch. Afzal Haq, was to gain political power without which, as they thought, no substantial contribution could be made to the welfare of the nation. 5 4. These people and those of their way of thinking were not constructive statesmen. They lived and thrived on disrup- tion. There was political awakening in the country at the time and the Ahrar seized this opportunity to gain the confidence of the Muslim masses. They remained on the look-out for occasions by which they could attract public attention. One occasion pre- sented itself when the Dogra Maharaja of Kashmir had many of his Muslim subjects mercilessly shot dead because they demand- ed their civic rights , which had so far been denied to them. The massacre and other attendant atrocities were at such a large scale that it shocked the whole of Muslim India, which felt impelled at the time to come to the rescue of their brethren in Kashmir. The late Dr. Sir Mohammad Iqbal was a mover in the setting up of a body known as All India Kashmir Committee , which was charged with the duty of getting for their Muslim brethren in Kashmir by constitutional and peaceful means the rights denied to them by the Kashmir Government. At the suggestion of the late Doctor Sahib the present Head of the Ahmadiyya Commu- 4 The Siyasat, Lahore, 21. 6. 35. 5 Khutibat-i-Ahrar, page 18.