FIRE and SWORD

Evening Star, Issue 25926, 18 October 1946, Page 7

FIRE and SWORD

BENGAL AFLAME

Worst Riots in History

Fanatical Mobs Sweep Country (Ree. 12.50 p.m) LONDON, October 17. Eastern Bengal is aflame with the worst Hindu-Moslem riots ever known, says the ' Daily Mail's 1 Calcutta correspondent. Two armed fanatical mobs of 20,000 strong are reported to be sweeping through a 250 square-mile area with fire and sword. 4 S. M. Ghosh, president of the- Bengal Provincial Committee of the All-India Congress Party, asserted that at least 5,000 had been killed in disturbances in the Noakhali and Tippera districts since October 10. It is reported that mobs at Noakhaii are indulging in an orgy of massacre, looting, arson, and desecration of places of worship on a scalp dwa.rfing the Calcutta riots. The Premier of the United Provinces, Govind Ballabh Pant, addressing a mass meeting, said: " The people of Allahabad are fighting like barbarians. I will not hesitate, if the stabbing and rioting do not stop, to post one constable for every man to prevent these killings. The citizens of Allahabad will have to pay the cost of extra police, however heavy." The 'Daily Telegraph's' Calcutta correspondent says that over 1,000 refugees, fleeing from the riots in Noakhali, tell of carnage, looting, qnd arson. One Hindu related how armed mobs attacked his village of 200 inhabitants, sacked it, and butchered the men and women.