I first met Maqbool Butt in March 1969 when he was released from
custody in
Muzaffarabad Qilla. He had just escaped from Srinagar jail
and managed to
cross over to Muzafarabad where he was arrested again.
He still had
frost-bite in his feet. Mir Abdul Qayyum was with me then.
Since that day
till May 1976 Maqbool Butt stayed with me in Rawalpindi.
He was so much
committed to the freedom movement that he had very
little time to go home. He
had very busy schedule of our work
recruiting more members. He was a tireless
man with a very strong
conviction for freedom. He worked day and night.
I
remember when Maqbool Butt, Javed Saghar and myself traveled day and
night
for 72 hours to supply goods to our underground activists in
Jammu for an
emergency. When we came back to my house after making safe
delivery I could
not control myself and immediately fell asleep. At
about 4 a.m. when I
suddenly woke up I found Maqbool Butt still having
discussions with Ayub
Khan's group who had arrived to discuss
operational matters in the Neelam
Sector. Maqbool Butt had another
excellent quality, which I never saw in
anyone else. He tackled very
complicated problems in such a simple way that
he bewildered me.
He enjoyed children's company. He was at his happiest with
children.
Whenever we had to look for him we looked for children's gathering
and
found him either playing with them or teaching them about the
meaning
and benefits of true freedom. I still remember his answer to one
child
who asked him how to be free. Maqbool Butt told him "when you can
make
yourself believe that you are free, YOU ARE FREE".
He was staunch
believer in national and individual freedom. He wanted
his nation to be a
proud and free nation. His ambition was for an
independent homeland where all
would be free from evils of the past and
of the prevailing era.
It is
beyond any doubt that he loved liberty for his people and I can
confirm with
my hand on my heart that Maqbool Butt believed Azadi was
worth having at
whatever cost.
Dr Farooque Haider