The First Nuclear Scientist And The Freedom Fighter Of Kashmir
Muhammad Ayyub Thakur (1948 – March 10, 2004) was Kashmiri freedom activist, philanthropist,and founder-president of London-based World Kashmir Freedom Movement (WKFM), an organisation dedicated to finding a peaceful political solution to the Kashmir Conflict. He was known for his work to the humanity at the platform of charity organization, Mercy Universal and for coordinating at the international level for the right of self-determination for the people of Jammu and Kashmir.
Dr. Thakur had lectured extensively on Kashmir issue. He attended hundreds of seminars and conferences around the world in universities, think tanks and other institutions, including the universities of Oxford and Cambridge and United Nations bodies. Dr Thakur was a Trustee of the UK-based charity, Mercy Universal, which he had founded in 2000 and was the Director of the Justice Foundation, which he founded in 2003 as a registered UK company to advance the Kashmir cause through public advocacy. Mery Universal provides humanitarian assistance mainly to the war-torn Kashmiri people.
Early life:
Muhammad Ayyub Thakur was born in 1948, in a poor peasent family, in Pudsoo village near Shopian, district Pulwama in Indian administrated Kashmir. He was the eldest of four children
Political activities:
Dr. Ayyub Thakur obtained his Doctorate (Phd.) in Nuclear Physics from the University of Kashmir. In 1978, after a brief stint at the Bhaba Atomic Research Centre (Zakoora, Srinagar) he became lecturer in the Department of Physics in the same university. He had a keen interest in the social and political issues of Jammu and Kashmir. He started his political career in early 1970s as a student leader in the University of Kashmir. He rallied Kashmiri youth and students and founded Jammu and Kashmir Students Islamic Organisation in 1974 and continued to be its patron till 1977. This organisation later merged with another organisation and changed into Islami Jamiat-e-Talaba, which he headed from 1977–1981. He was also the president of Kashmir University Students Union and Kashmir University Research Scholars Association. As a student leader, Dr. Thakur attended international youth and student conferences at Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in 1979, Dhaka, Bangladesh in 1980 and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in the same year. In these conferences, Dr. Thakur put forward the Kashmiri viewpoint and drew the world attention towards the Kashmir problem. In Kuala Lumpur conference in 1980, he was instrumental in passing a resolution condemning the Indian occupation of Jammu and Kashmir. Dr. Thakur organised meetings of the youth and students to challenge the Kashmir’s accession to India which he considered as fraudulent. He strongly opposed the accord between unionist Kashmiri leader Sheikh Abdullah and Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1974, as being aimed at strengthening Indian occupation of Jammu and Kashmir.
After becoming lecturer at the University of Kashmir he intensified his peaceful political activities. He began organising students and colleagues to form an intellectual response to the Indian occupation. In August 1980, he and many of his colleagues at university and students organisation, Islami Jamiat-i-Talaba, organised an international conference on the issue of right of self-determination of Kashmiris as outlined in the United Nations resolutions on Kashmir. Indian government, however, banned the conference and dismissed Dr. Ayyub from his job as a university teacher, and later imprisoned him along with his colleagues under Public Safety Act (PSA). During his five month imprisonment, he was subjected to inhuman torture of all sorts, but he refused to compromise on his political ideology. After his release in 1981 he bagan to travel far and wide in Kashmir to mobilise the Kashmir youth. But police always tried to intrupts his activities every now and then. Tired of playing a cat-and-mouse game with the police, on May 25, 1981 he opted to accept the offer of a lecturer in the King Abdul Aziz University, Jeddah in Saudi Arabia where he served up to 1984.
In exile:
In 1981, Dr. Thakur joined the Nuclear Engineering Department of King Abdul Aziz University, Jeddah in Saudi Arabia as Assistant Professor. During his stay, he tried to mobilise support for the Kashmir cause and organised camps for the Kashmiri pilgrims during Hajj. He married the daughter of a respectable man from Baramulla in 1981, in absentia. Probably the first marriage where groom’s consent was taken on phone and the bride flew to Jeddah. After six years of his service, he went to London in 1986 for post-doctoral research programme and simultaneously started organising support for the Kashmir issue. Later in 1990, he took over as the founder president of the World Kashmir Freedom Movement (WKFM). He was also trustee of the UK-based charity, Mercy Universal, which he had founded in 2000 and Director of the Justice Foundation, which he founded in 2003
World Kashmir Freedom Movement:
The World Kashmir Freedom Movement (WKFM) is an umbrella organisation of expatriate Kashmiris from Indian administrated Kashmir working internationally for the promotion of the Kashmir cause. It was set up on 17 June 1990 with Dr. Ayyub Thakur as it president and has offices in Europe, Americas and Middle East. In July 1991, the World Kashmir Freedom Movement organised an international conference on Kashmir issue in Washington, D.C. A large number of US congressmen, members of British Parliament and European Parliament as well as distinguished intellectuals and academicians participated in the conference and supported tri-partite talks for the resolution of Kashmir dispute. During his address to the conference, Dr. Ayyub Thakur, urged Kashmiri militants to renounce the misuse of force no matter how compelling the self-determination aspiration. He was the first Kashmiri leader to offer conditional and issue-based moral support to the Kashmiri militants. The conference was a great success and generated a lot of debate in media and political circles much to the annoyance of India. The Indian Government took the success of the conference very seriously, and accused Dr. Ayyub Thakur of sending money to the Kashmiri freedom fighters for terrorist activities. Under the directions of various Indian intelligence agencies, many cases ranging from terrorism to sabotage were registered against him. The Indian Government booked him under infamous Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA). This case later formed the genesis of the famous Jain Hawala Corruption Case, in which 38 prominent Indian politicians were charge sheeted and later discharged. Dr. Ayyub Thakur also attended the 1991 Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) Foreign minister meeting in Istanbul, Turkey, the 1993 OIC summit meeting in Dakar, Senegal and World tactics did not yield the desired result. On this occasion Dr. Ayyub Thakur led a delegation and highlighted the Indian intransigence and the massive human rights violations. World KKashmir Freedom Movement also joined other Kashmiri groups and attended March 1993 session of United Nations Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR) and later the World Conference on Human Rights at Vienna, Austria in June 1993. As the World Kashmir Freedom Movement activities were growing, Indian Government tried to extradite Ayub Thakur on charges of financing ‘terrorism’ and secessionist plotting. He became India’s chief nemesis. Indian government twice sought his extradition from the UK in 1992 and 1993. After its failure, they finally impounded his passport in 1993. This left Dr. Ayyub stranded in United Kingdom for about four years along with his family. However, in 1997 the British government issued him with a travel document, which he used till his death.
During the visit of British Home Secretary Jack Straw to India in May 2002, Indian Deputy Prime Minister, LK Advani in his meeting with him accused Dr. Thakur of diverting funds to the Kashmiri militants for terrorist activities. He first demanded the arrest of Dr. Thakur under the new anti-terrorist laws and when it did not work, demanded his deportation or extradition to India. The Indian Government tried to build the pressure and made repeated demands for his extradition. Moreover, the Indian intelligence agencies launched a vicious propaganda campaign in the Indian media against Dr. Thakur. Later, in August 2002 when Mr. LK Advani visited UK, he again demanded the extradition of the Dr. Ayyub Thakur. In addition, the Indian High Commission in London reportedly formed a two-member committee to follow the issue on day-to-day basis.
Mercy Universal:
In 2000, World Kashmir Freedom Movement president and its leaders formed, Mercy Universal. Mercy Universal is an International Humanitarian Organisation registered with the Charity Commission in the United Kingdom. It works for the mitigation of peoples suffering in some of the world’s poorest communities in South Asia and East Africa. It also provides humanitarian relief in the UK.
It has so far rehabilitated than 2000 people in Jammu and Kashmir . Among the beneficiaries include hundreds of widows and orphan children whose parents were killed by the Indian army. Mercy Universal carries out its work without being prejudiced by political views of its organisers and helps any body who is a victim and has suffered during the ongoing freedom struggle. However, the Indian Government has accused Mercy Universal of funding terrorist activities and arrested many its volunteers.
Family members harassed:
During the last 15 years all of his family members, relatives and friends were subjected to torture and harassment by the Indian army and its various agencies. His ancestral house in Kashmir was raided many a time and his old parents threatened.
Both his parents died in a hope to see their son, whom they hadn’t seen for more than a decade. His father, Khwaja Ghulam Ahmad Thakur died in November 2001 after a brief illness. He was 75. A year later his 73-year-old mother, Fatima Begum died in December 2002. On both the occasions, Dr. Ayyub could not see his parents or offer their last rites.
His son Muzammil Ayub Thakur is a successful London based Financial Consultant, despite his busy career he attempts to follow the footsteps of his father with the aim and dream of a liberated Kashmir. The Indian government has denied him the right to visit India for good because he has been accused of inciting hatred against Indians, is an extreme right wing Kashmiri nationalist, and has fabricated cases of being subject to physical abuse by the Indian authorities, he promotes himself on television interviews.
Death:
He died at the age of 55, in London on March 10, 2004 after protracting an illness. He was suffering from pulmonary fibrosis His funeral was held at the London Central Mosque, Regent Park, and he was laid to rest at the Garden of Peace, in Greenford, West London, close to where he had been living for many years. The Indian Government refused to allow his remains to be returned to his homeland. He is survived by a widow, a son Muzzammil Ayyub Thakur, who has followed his fathers footsteps, and two daughters.........
