Was the National Conference worker a martyr or a traitor? It depends on who tells the story
Outside the army cantonment close to Baramulla town hangs the poster of a solemn, whiskered young man. “Shahid Maqbool Sherwani,” it reads. He died on November 7, 1947, aged about 19, killed by tribal invaders from the North West Frontier Province in a skirmish that would become the first border war between India and Pakistan.

“They put 14 bullets in him,” said 82-year-old Khaliq Parvaiz, a writer based in Baramulla town, in a matter of fact voice. “They tied him to two pillars of Khan Hotel, near Regina Cinema, and shot him.”
According to one version of the story, Sherwani, a National Conference worker, had told the invaders that he would show them the way to Srinagar, the capital of what was then the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir. Instead, he led them astray, slowing them down by days and giving the Indian Army time to land at the Srinagar airport on October 27.

In another version, Sherwani rode around on a bike after the invaders stormed Baramulla on October 22, telling them not to press forward towards Srinagar since the army had already landed. It stalled the advance of the tribal forces and bought the Indian Army precious time. The invaders were intercepted and routed at Shalteng, a few kilometres outside Srinagar, on November 7. If the invaders had reached Srinagar before the Indian army, it is said, the war may have ended very differently.

The raiders found out about Sherwani’s ruse when he was in Sumbal, some 35 kilometres from Baramulla town, local residents now say. They brought him back to the town to kill him. The body stayed up for a few days, a grim warning to other residents.
Martyrs and traitors
Now the “crucifixion” of Maqbool Sherwani has passed into popular lore in the Valley. Every war must have its martyrs and 1947 was no different
In St Joseph’s Hospital, the Valley found what author Andrew Whitehead calls its “first Catholic martyr”. Sister Mary Teresalina had died trying to protect the Mother Superior at the Franciscan mission in Baramulla. Her portrait still hangs in the hallway of the hospital and flowers still adorn a memorial in the quiet octagonal courtyard. In the chapel next to the hospital a pamphlet titled “I Will Be the First” is still distributed, telling the story of the young nun from Spain who apparently died saying, “I offer myself as a victim for the People of Kashmir.”

Sherwani, however, left behind a contested legacy. A plaque outside the black marble Sherwani Community Hall, constructed in his memory in 2004, hails the “courage and supreme sacrifice” made by the young man in “defending the historic town of Baramulla and its citizens against the Tribal Invasion of October-November 1947”. The martyrdom of the National Conference worker has been absorbed into official memory. Every year, the Indian Army pays tribute to him on October 27, now celebrated as Infantry Day, and the community hall is part of a municipal complex. On a sunny day in September, residents had queued outside for Aadhaar cards.

But outside official circles, opinion is divided. “Those who are pro-Pakistan think he’s a traitor,” said Farooq Ahmed Shaal, a businessman in Baramulla. When Kashmiri separatism saw a resurgence in the 1980s, these resentments also intensified.

An earlier memorial, located where the granite structure now stands, was burnt down by an angry crowd in 1988, residents say, shortly after the Pakistani president, Zia-ul-Haq, was killed in a suspicious plane crash. People marching in pro-freedom rallies at that time would shout, “Maqbool Sherwaniam beol, khudayan gol.” Mabool Sherwani’s seed, may god destroy
And friends
In Baramulla, Sherwani, an active National Conference worker, seemed to have been in the thick of a political feud with the pro-Pakistan Muslim Conference. The two parties had started life as one in 1932.