INDIAN UNREST

Greymouth Evening Star, 18 June 1930, Page 8

INDIAN UNREST

FRONTIER OPERATIONS. [OFFICIAL WIRELESS.] RUGBY, June 17. The Government of India has issued an appreciation of the situation in India for the week ended June 7. It is stated that the Afridi situation overshadowed everything else during the week. At one time, events threatened to assume a very serious complexion. A Lashkar led by Said Badshah and other prominent Mullahs, was known to have formed some three weeks ago near the western end of the Khajari Plain. Subsequently, further concentrations with standards collected at Upper Bara, and began to move slowly towards the Peshawar district border. By June 4, the Lashkar had reached a point about 15 miles west of Bara fort. The reported intention was to hold Jirga with the Khulil and Mohmand tribes of the district, with a. view to combined resistance to the alleged Government oppression. On the night o t June 4, the Lashkar entered the Peshawar district, and numerous isolated gangs, some of them numbering several hundreds, penetrated Khalil and Mohmand villages up the cantonment boundary. The Khalilo and Mohmands were excited to revolt and attack the cantonment, but refused. A large part of the Lashkar appears thereupon to have retired westwards towards the hills.. Numerous gangs, however, remained scattered through the Khalil and Mohmand country and in gardens south of Pashawar City. Trees were felled and culverts destroyed on the PeshawarBara road. On the morning of Juno 5, parties retiring across the Khajari Plain were bombed from the air, and the Royal Air Force was reported to have inflicted heavy casualties. Simultaneously a mowable column marched out from Peshawar to clear the country between Bara and the Kohat roads. The drive was entirely successful and the troops were reported to have inflicted severe casualties, operating in very difficult terrain. Details of the losses suffered bv the Government forces are not yet available, but a. few casualties, as are inevitable in opera!ions of this sort, are reported to Jia ve occurred. A careful search conducted on .Juno (>, failed to discover any Afridi stragglers in British territory, and the entire Lashkar appears to have withdrawn from the district.

DRUG TRAFFIC INCREASE [f)Y CABLE—PRESS ASSN. —COI’YRIOHT.,I (Reed, .lune IS, 10 a.m.) DELHI, June 17. The Government of India is conducting special investigation into the smuggling of cocaine into India and Burma. The drug traffic has grown enormously. Police Officer J. Slattery is journeying to Japan to endeavour to trace the origin of supplies. At Boosay, the police arrested fiftyone Congress volunteers picketing European stores in the big shopping quarter of the city. The streets are tilled with menacing crowds, demonstrating sympathy with those arrested. Troops maintained order. It. is likely that the Marylebone cricketers will be asked to defer the tour this year, owing to the threat of boycott. Prominent. European sportsmen say: “We can't have our guests insulted.” . .