FANATICAL MOBS

Greymouth Evening Star, 18 October 1946, Page 7

FANATICAL MOBS

Thousands Killed in Riots •/. EASTERN BENGAL NOW AFLAME (Recd. 2 p.m.)" LONDON, October 17. Eastern Bengal is aflame with the worst Hindu-Moslem riots ever known, says the Daily Mail’s Calcutta correspondent. Two armed fanatical mobs 20,000 strong are reported to be sweeping through an area of 250 square miles with fire and sword. Mr. Gandhi revealed at a prayer meeting in New Delhi today that he had sent the president elect of Congress, Acharya Kripalani, and Sarat Chandra Bose on a “do-or-die” mission to Noakhali. Mr. Gandhi said he had instructed his emissaries “either to bring peace.to Noakhali or not return alive.” He added: “Mr. Bose is suffering from diabetes and can afford the sacrifice of his already doomed body.” Referring to the abduction of women in the Noakhali riots, Mr. Gandhi said: “Women can end their lives before the hooligans touch them. Women can die by holding their breath and hold off the hooligans with willpower.”

The Premier of the United Provinces, Govind Eallahb Pant, addressing a mass meeting, said: “The people of Allahabad are fighting like barbarians. I will not hesitate, if the stabbings and riotings don’t stop, to post one constable for every man to prevent these killings, and the citizens of Allahabad will have to pay the cost of the extra police, however heavy.” The Daily Telegraph’s Calcutta correspondent says that over 1000 refugees, fleeing from the riots in Noakhali, tell of carnage, looting and arson. One Hindu related how armed mobs attacked his village of 200 inhabitants, sacked it and butchered men and women. Mr S. M. Ghosh, president of the Bengal Provincial Committee of the All-India Congress Party, asserted that at least 5000 have been killed in the disturbances in the Noakhali and Tippera districts since October 10. It is reported that the mobs in Noakhali are indulging in an orgy of massacre, looting, arson and desecration of places of worship on a scale dwarfing even the Calcutta riots.