ENRAGED MOSLEMS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22416, 25 August 1947, Page 6

ENRAGED MOSLEMS

REPRISAL ATTACKS CONFLICT IN PUNJAB WAR-BATTERED CITIES (11.30 a.m.) NEW DELHI, Aug. 24. Enraged Moslems on the Pakistan side of the Punjab have renewed their action against Sikh and Hindu minorities to avenge the Sikhs’ rampaging against Mohammedans on the India side of the boundary. A communique from the joint Pakistan-Indian military forces says that many villages and cities are already so battered that they look as though armies have fought through them.

Reuter’s correspondent says the situation is complicated by the flow of hundreds of thousands of refugees which the Punjab boundary force are unable to feed.

The Prime Minister of India. Pandit Nehru, has left for Jullundur to discuss with the Governor, Sir Chandulal Trivedi, measures to restore order in the province. Troops again went into action in communal disturbances in the rural districts of Lahore—the Punjab districts which have been divided between Pakistan and India, states a communique. Casualties were inflicted against both communities and prisoners taken. The troops suffered casualties.

The communique emphasises the army's inability to feed hundreds of thousands of men, women and children in the flew of refugees east and west. Sixty persons were killed and 93 injured in the rioting which started at Quetta last Wednesday, following an attempt to hoist the "Pathanistan” flag over a mosque, reports Reuter’s correspondent. The troops evacuated all Hindus and Moslems and accommodated them on a nearby racecourse. Troops and police are maintaining patrols to enforce the 15-hour daily curfew imposed to quell the rioting. One result of the terror in the Punjab is the beginning of a vast transfer of population. Within a few weeks at the present rate of transfer there will not be a Moslem left on tne Indian side of the frontier or a Hindu left on the Pakistan side except perhaps some Hindu merchants in Lahore Of the 300,000 Hindus who formerly lived in Lahore fewer than 10.000 remain. The exodus has almost brought the city’s life to a standstill. It is officially stated that 3,000 persons were killed within the boundary. The violence has now swept eastward to Jullunder. British officers of the boundary force hone that it will subside as it reaches preponderantly Hindu areas, but there remain many areas where villagers of one religion will suddenly turn to attack neighbours of anotner religion, although they may have lived side by side since chldhood.