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Pakistan: war of independance
guns, and no one ever received a trial. The bodies of the freedom fighters lay all over the country, and the air was filled with the scent of Indian blood. Many villages were totally destroyed, and huts were blackened with fire. You could hear the cries of women and children, because of dead family members or pleading for mercy from the British soldiers. The British soldiers were also successful in executing some great Indian leaders like Raani of Jhansi and Nana Sahib. These martyrs were killed while fighting in the battlefield.
Amidst the tragic events that were happening all over the country, it became increasingly obvious that it was just a matter of time before they got to my father. I remember us leaving the house that we had in central Meerut, and fleeing through the dark alleys of the war stricken city. One fateful night when we were sleeping on a dusty street, we were woken up by harsh voices speaking in English. We were horrified to see British soldiers. They dragged all three of us to a nearby massacre ground. Here, my father was separated from my mother and I, and he was put at the end of the line with other sepoys who were awaiting their death. The line seemed endless but slowly as the first streaks of dawn spread over the sky, the line suddenly seemed dead short. As my father was pushed onto the guillotine, my mother howled and turned my face the other way. The next scene that I can recall is of my father’s headless body lurching forward onto the ground.
The British reached the height of brutality while dealing with the heirs of the royal family. Captain Hudson, a ruthless British commander, captured the Mughal Emperor and subjected him to the most inhumane torture and humiliation. The emperor’s sons Mirza Mughal, Mirza Sultan, and Mirza Abu Bakar were slaughtered. Their bodies were beheaded and their heads were presented to the aging emperor in the prison.
So to speak, the war of 1857 was an eye opener for all Indians. The war finally ended in 1858. It was the fiercest, bloodiest war ever fought on Indian soil. The British like to call it just a mutiny, but it was far more than a mutiny, it was a war, the war of Independence.