The Imran Khan government of Pakistan has launched a tirade against India since abrogation of the special status of Jammu and Kashmir last month. (Photo: Twitter/@MoIB_Official)

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan is in Muzaffarabad for the second time since the abrogation of the special status of Jammu and Kashmir by the Narendra Modi government last month. Imran Khan is holding a "big jalsa" at Khurshid Hasan Khurshid football stadium today in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

In his previous Muzaffarabad visit on Pakistan's Independence Day, Imran Khan had addressed the legislative assembly of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. But the choice of venue for his second visit is quite interesting. It is directly connected to Pakistan's decades-old endeavour to capture Kashmir.

The stadium is named after Khurshid Hasan Khurshid, who was the private secretary and played a key role in devising Pakistan's earliest plot to take over Kashmir by whatever means. After the capture of one-third Kashmir, Khurshid was appointed the first president of PoK by Pakistan's first military dictator Ayub Khan.

The beginning

Khurshid's story begins with his first meeting with Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the leader of the Muslim League, in 1942 in Jallandhar. Khurshid was a college student then and had established his Kashmir Muslim Students Federation. This meeting paved the ground for a second meeting with Jinnah in 1944, when he was holidaying in Kashmir.

Khurshid was now employed with a news agency in Srinagar and met Jinnah as an agent of the Orient Press of India. Jinnah was so impressed with Khurshid that he kept him on his staff. Very soon, Khurshid was the private secretary of Jinnah, planning a separate homeland for Muslims - Pakistan.

Jinnah is said to have remarked once that Pakistan was created by him, his private secretary and his typewriter.

When Partition became a certainty, Jinnah-Khurshid duo set eyes on the vacillating king of Jammu and Kashmir Hari Singh, who wished to remain independent but not sure how to keep his kingdom secure.

Plot to capture Kashmir

In the summer of 1947, Jinnah set Khurshid on a mission to Kashmir to negotiate accession of Jammu and Kashmir with Pakistan. But Hari Singh did not agree despite weeks of cajoling.

Carrying Jinnah's message, Khurshid told Hari Singh that if he decided to merge his state with Pakistan, he would be protected against the rising power of Sheikh Abdullah, the National Conference leader. He also promised that the Jinnah administration would not deprive him of an iota of existing powers in Jammu and Kashmir. Khurshid returned to Pakistan without success.

On the other hand, an alarmed Hari Singh replaced his prime minister -- Ram Chandra Kak, who was considered soft towards Jinnah -- and appointed Justice Mehr Chand Mahajan, the former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of India. He was the nominee of the Congress on the Radcliff Commission that drew lines of Partition between India and Pakistan.

Some of the researchers have said that Khurshid had tried to engineer communal frenzy in the Kashmir Valley finding Hari Singh a tough nut to crack. Having born in Srinagar, Khurshid could not accept the idea that Jammu and Kashmir stayed outside Pakistan.

When seed of unrest sown

He visited Kashmir for the second time in early October, again as an emissary of Jinnah. He is said to have tried every trick on Hari Singh to declare accession of Jammu and Kashmir with Pakistan but the ruler did not budge from his earlier stand.

On October 12, Khurshid sent his report to Jinnah saying that Hari Singh was "dead set against accession to Pakistan" and suggested that Pakistan should be ready for a fight over Kashmir. He said Pakistan should "supply arms and foodstuffs" to tribals to launch strikes against Jammu and Kashmir. He named a major rank officer to lead such an operation.

Wikipedia has quoted, from Jinnah Papers, the following conclusion by Khurshid in his October 12 note: "In the light of the above, I am personally of the opinion, Sir, that Pakistan must think in terms of fighting . . . as far as Kashmir is concerned.... All that Pakistan has to be ready for in such an eventuality is to supply arms and foodstuffs to the tribes within and without the State who are already sharpening their weapons.... I may say, Sir, that Major Khurshid Anwar (of Muslim [League] National Guards) is already in Rawalpindi and he can very well be trusted with the work of liaison."

Ten days later, i.e. on October 22, a mix of tribal militia and Pakistan Army regulars invaded Jammu and Kashmir. They occupied a sizeable portion of the Kashmir Valley before India entered into the fray after singing of the Instrument of Accession on October 26, 1947.

Khurshid was still in Srinagar hoping that the Pakistani forces would capture entire Jammu and Kashmir. He was finally arrested by Indian forces on November 2 and was released as part of the exchange of prisoners deal in 1949. Ten years later, he became the president of PoK.

The areas of Gilgit-Baltistan were acquired by Pakistan through a treachery by the British agent posted in the region.

Imran Khan's own political battle

Imran Khan's decision to hold a rally at Khurshid Stadium is aimed at revisiting the original plot by Pakistani leadership to acquire Jammu and Kashmir. This is also a move to silence his political opponents, who have said that Imran Khan is on the verge of losing Muzaffarabad.

Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, the Pakistan People's Party leader, had last month said, "Our earlier stand on Kashmir used to be how to take Srinagar from India. But now we are in such a position where we need to think on how to secure Muzaffarabad."

With a rally in Muzaffarabad, Imran Khan wants to consolidate his political position which has taken a big hit in the view of wide-ranging failures to deliver what he promised in 2018 national election.