INDIA’S REFUGEE PROBLEM

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25289, 15 September 1947, Page 7

INDIA’S REFUGEE PROBLEM

Comment By Pandit Nehru CASUALTIES IN PUNJAB (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 9 p.m.) NEW DELHI, September 13. “We underestimated the situation, and these happenings took us unawares,” said the Prime Minister of India (Pandit Nehru), discussing the communal disturbances in the Punjab. At least 1,250,000 refugees had been evacuated, 500,000 were awaiting evacuation, and 2,000,000 were on the move. “We did not want to exchange populations, but this has been forced on us,” Pandit Nehru said. The official casualty list comprised 15,000 persons, but the figure might be doubled or trebled. No reliable statistics were available. He said that India was having to try to control a great movement of her peoples in a brief space of time, while at the same time facing a food shortage and an economic crisis. The Delhi correspondent of “The Times” says that a high military spokesman declared last night that the latest military reports indicated no increase of major incidents. The flow of refugees in both directions was continuing. Where troops had been compelled to take action, it had been against mobs attacking convoys of refugees. The curfews in Delhi had been relaxed, and the city was gradually returning to normal. Two measures announced yesterday indicate the gravity of the crisis through which India is passing: Indian Army headquarters has suspended a.ll leave, exceot for local leave not exceeding 48 hours, and the Government has temporarily cancelled all holidays, including Sundays. One hundred and five persons were killed and 80 injured when troops Opened fire during communal rioting at Patiala, the capital of India’s major Sikh State.

A report from East Punjab said that between 60 and 70 persons were killed in the Tarantaran district, outside Amristar, when an armed gang attacked a column of Moslem refugees