PUNJAB RIOT AREAS

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25282, 6 September 1947, Page 9

PUNJAB RIOT AREAS

HINDUS AND SIKHS MASSACRED “APPALLING BUTCHERY” NEW DELHI. September 4. A correspondent of the Associated Press who has just toured the Punjab raid that a courier told the Prime Minister of India (Pandit Nehru) of an appalling butchery of Hindus and Sikhs m a remote section of East Punjab (in the Dominion of India), and it was only with difficulty that Hindu troops who knew of it were restrained from taking reprisals. A small Hindu military force sent into the Shakirgah district, 50 miles south-east of Sialkot, to protect 12,000 Sikhs and Hindus, found only 1500 survivors. Two thousand persons had escaped into the adjoining Jammu State. i

The roads, fields and villages are littered with thousands of bodies of the victims.

Pandit Nehru is reported to have told his associates that more survivors probably escaped, but he was convinced a shocking tragedy had occurred. The courier said the people were trapped because two sides of the district were bounded by the swollen river Ravi, with Moslems controlling the ferry-boats and the only bridge. Mobs formed almost a solid barrier across the third side. The courier also reported that Indian troops wanted an expedition of their forces to sweep into Pakistan in search of 6000 young women whom they believed the Moslems had abducted in the Shakirgah massacre.

A communique issued by the newlycreated East Punjab Military Area said that troops were in action In several places to-day against armed bands raiding refugee columns in the West Punjab. The communique added that the province generally was quiet. Although there are still marauding gangs of Sikhs burning Moslem districts in East Punjab and still towns in West Punjab where Hindu and Sikh inhabitants may be butchered, the main slaughter is over, says the of “The Times.” The crisis is changing in character. The chief problem now is large-scale looting and sporadic attacks on refugees.

w ... T , rans fer of Population With the vast transfer of population in progress there is no means of estimating the number involved, but it cannot be less than 1,000,000 and may be 2,000,000. The permanence of the transfer depends on whether confidence can be restored. The Moslems going west are nearly all simple peasants. If they can be settled in West Punjab they may stay permanently. Government policy is to settle them as soon as possible on vacated farms so that autumn crops can be harvested.

The feud between the Moslems and Sikhs is so deep that it will be many years before the Sikhs will feel secure in a Moslem majority area. The slaughter in East Punjab is greater than in West Punjab because the Sikhs are better armed and organised, but the brutalities are just as bad on both sides.

In Karachi, the district magistrate has ordered a three-day curfew from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. It is the first time for many years that Karachi has had a curfew.

Four persons were killed and 47 were injured in communal clashes in the old city of Delhi to-day. Four cases of arson and a bomb explosion were reported at Tihapur, about two miles north of the city. The government of the North-west Frontier Province reported that raiders, in a severe and prolonged action, twice attacked a troop train near Kohat and killed 20 troops and wounded 94. The raiders suffered 100 casualties, including 40 killed. Seventeen persons lost their lives and eight were wounded in a communal disturbance at Takhat Bahai, near Mardan. The police arrested 40 persons.

The Pakistan Government, because of the chaos in West Punjab, has sent 400 personal letters to retired British officers of the Indian Civil Service and police offering them liberal terms to come back at once on three to fiveyear contracts. The terms include double pay during termination leave and full pay plus half pension when their leave ends.

Arsenal Discovered In Vienna.—The Tass News Agency reports that Allied and Austrian police have discovered in Vienna a secret arsenal containing 40 cases of arms and ammuniI tion.—Moscow, September 5.