Qualla: Battle of Rawalakot https://qualla.com/battle-of-rawalakot en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:32 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/t/w/h/2/battle-of-rawalakot-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Battle of Rawalakot https://qualla.com/battle-of-rawalakot Battle of Rawalakot: Introduction https://qualla.com/battle-of-rawalakot/ Photo credit Yuet Man Lee, CC BY-SA 4.0. On 15 June 1947, Sardar Ibrahim Khan stood before 20,000 people in Rawalakot and spoke in what authorities would later describe as "most seditious terms." Pakistan, he told the crowd, was coming into being, and the people of Jammu and Kashmir could not remain unaffected. After that day, he would later write, "a strange atmosphere took the place of the usually peaceful life in these parts." Within months, that strange atmosphere would erupt into open warfare. The Battle of Rawalakot, fought between November 4 and 14, 1947, became one of the decisive engagements of the First Kashmir War, a conflict born from the chaotic partition of British India that would permanently divide a region and its people.

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Image: Yuet Man Lee | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Wed, 25 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/t/w/h/2/battle-of-rawalakot-wp/twh2-battle-of-rawalakot-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Battle of Rawalakot: A Valley Preparing for War https://qualla.com/battle-of-rawalakot/ Photo credit Muhammad Umer, CC BY-SA 4.0. The roots of the battle reached back to the spring of 1947, when Sardar Ibrahim, a member of the Legislative Assembly from the Bagh-Sudhnoti constituency, returned to Poonch convinced that the state forces and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh were conspiring against the Muslim pop...

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]]> Wed, 25 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/t/w/h/2/battle-of-rawalakot-wp/twh2-battle-of-rawalakot-a-valley-preparing-for-war.mp3 0:06 2 full Battle of Rawalakot: Bloodshed Before the Battle https://qualla.com/battle-of-rawalakot/ Photo credit Muhammad Umer, CC BY-SA 4.0. August 1947 brought escalating violence. On the 22nd, over 2,000 people in Rawalakot petitioned for accession to Pakistan. The state administration called in local leaders, who temporarily withdrew their demands. But when the people of Bagh refused to comply, the situation spiral...

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]]> Wed, 25 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/t/w/h/2/battle-of-rawalakot-wp/twh2-battle-of-rawalakot-bloodshed-before-the-battle.mp3 0:06 3 full Battle of Rawalakot: The Siege and the Mortar https://qualla.com/battle-of-rawalakot/ Photo credit Muhammad Umer, CC BY-SA 4.0. On 19 and 20 October, Azad forces launched their assault on Rawalakot itself. State forces had fortified a mosque, gambling that the attackers would spare a house of worship. Captain Hussain Khan's men carried a three-inch mortar on foot, lashing it to wooden poles to bring it wi...

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]]> Wed, 25 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/t/w/h/2/battle-of-rawalakot-wp/twh2-battle-of-rawalakot-the-siege-and-the-mortar.mp3 0:06 4 full Battle of Rawalakot: Retreat Through the Mountains https://qualla.com/battle-of-rawalakot/ Photo credit Muhammad Umer, CC BY-SA 4.0. Colonel Ram Lal, commanding the state forces garrison, recognized the situation was untenable. Ammunition and supplies were critically low, and refugees were flooding in. His withdrawal plan called for two stages: Major Amarnath would lead a column with 3,000 refugees toward Haji...

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]]> Wed, 25 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/t/w/h/2/battle-of-rawalakot-wp/twh2-battle-of-rawalakot-retreat-through-the-mountains.mp3 0:06 5 full Battle of Rawalakot: A Line Drawn Through a Homeland https://qualla.com/battle-of-rawalakot/ Photo credit Muhammad Umer, CC BY-SA 4.0. The fall of Rawalakot to the Azad forces helped establish facts on the ground that would prove permanent. When hostilities ended and the Karachi Agreement established a ceasefire line, the Poonch district was divided between India and Pakistan. Rawalakot became the capital of Poo...

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]]> Wed, 25 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/t/w/h/2/battle-of-rawalakot-wp/twh2-battle-of-rawalakot-a-line-drawn-through-a-homeland.mp3 0:06 6 full