When Mohammad Ali Jinnah visited the State in 1943, it had ended on a sour note. Not surprisingly, he bore a grudge against Kashmiris and, later, had been the reason for the forcible attempt of Pakistan to annex Kashmir. There was little doubt that during his visit he had first approached Abdullah in order to enlist him as his commander in the State, little knowing that just as he believed in his destiny of being the messianic leader of the Indian Muslims, similarly Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah believed that he alone was preordained to lead the Kashmiris towards a New Kashmir.
Therefore, Jinnah had failed in his primary mission and failed with Abdullah, and consequently, bared his communal fangs and cast his support for Chaudhary Ghulam Abbas as the leader of the Jammu Muslims and a rival of Sheikh Abdullah. On his way back to Rawalpindi he addressed a public meeting at Baramulla, exhorting the people of Kashmir to rally behind the Muslim Conference led by Chaudhary Ghulam Abbas. He was stunned when the Kashmiri Muslims hooted him and he had to make good his escape from the venue.
He had again sought permission to visit Kashmir during those tumultuous years when the…
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