NOVEMBER 15 FIXED AS DATE TO END REFUGEE MOVEMENTS IN INDIA

Greymouth Evening Star, 11 October 1947, Page 4

NOVEMBER 15 FIXED AS DATE TO END REFUGEE MOVEMENTS IN INDIA

(Rec. 11 a.m.) NEW DELHI, October 10. The emergency committee of the Cabinet has set November 15 as the target date for the completion of the refugee movements through East* Punjab. , Indian military headquarters, reported that the number of refugees in various camps up to noon today totalled 1,350,000 Hindus and Sikhs while 1,150,000 Moslems were moving or awaiting movement. Ten thousand Moslems are travelling daily to Pakistan by rail and between 25,000 and 50,000 on foot, without. molestation. Two more Indian battalions have gone to Lahore to protect Hindu and Sikh refugees moving east. The tactical headquarters of the Indian military evacuation organisation have been shifted from Amritsar to Lahore for better co-ordination with Pakistan on the movement of Hindu and Sikh refugees. It is officially reported that there are about 3000 cases of cholera and suspected cholera in the refugee camps in East and West Punjab and in the Delhi area. Pakistan has agreed to India’s suggestion that the future of Junagadh should be determined by a nlebiscite. says the Delhi correspondent of The Times. Th ecorrespondent says that as more than 80 per cent, of Junagadh’s population is Hindu, the result of the plebiscite seems to be a foregone conclusion. An official of the Pakistan Government said that the ’solution of the Junagadh issue might easily create a precedent for States like Hyderabad and Kashmir, which have yet to join India or Pakistan. _____