Harihar Swarup
Sardar Basant Singh was barely 13 when Pakistanis attacked the border villages of the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir in September 1947. The invaders, who were led by the Pakistani army, captured several villages and towns.
But Qila Darhal, Basant’s village near Nowshera town in Jammu region, held out. Basant still remembers the heroic resistance put up by about 50 villages, who kept the invaders at bay for 54 days – from September 4 to October 28-until Jammu and Kashmir acceded to the Indian Union and the Indian Army joined the battle. The feat has not many parallels in Indian history.
“We were just about 50 against hundreds of invaders. We fought with country-made rifles and gave them a tough fight which they never anticipated”, said Basant, who was among the first national to meet the heroes of QilaDarhal. The villagers erected a memorial in 1952 to honour the brave hearts. Shaheedgarh is perhaps the only war memorial in India dedicated to…