KILLING & LOOTING CONTINUES

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22427, 6 September 1947, Page 5

KILLING & LOOTING CONTINUES

SAVAGE CLASHES IN PUNJAB TOWNS POLICE OPEN FIRE TO DISPERSE MOBS (N.Z.P. A.—Reuter —Copyright.) (10.15 a.m.) NEW DELHI, September 5. Fifty-five persons were killed and 81 injured in communal rioting in New Delhi today, making a total of 70 killed in 24 hours. The victims included 12 killed and 20 injured when the police fired several times on a mob looting shops in the suburb of Karolbagh. A message from Amritsar says that 200 people were killed at Beas railway station, in the Punjab, last night when Moslem troops going to Pakistan in a special train attacked Hindue and Sikh refugees going to Iloshiarpur in another special train.

“Worst Excesses May Be Over” The Times, in an editorial, says there are some grounds for hoping that the worst excesses of Indian communal terror may be over. Outside the Punjab, isolated outrages continue and rioting has rudely broken the unexpected calm of Calcutta. The local authorities are acting with en orgy. Curfews are being imposed and order is being enforced without regard to the creed ot those who disturb it. Mr. Gandhi's latest fast seems to have had a good elfect in Bengal. The situation in the Punjab, however. remains critical, though, even here, there has been some improvement. There are some signs that the fearful competition in retaliation is declining as Governments of both Dominions make plain their determination that they will not tolerate it. They are co-operating earnestly and, if they continue to do so. peace may be restored to the tortured Punjab. The tours of the disturbed areas by the Prime Ministers and Defence Ministers of the .two Dominions have done good. It is still too early to judge whether the decision to abolish the Punjab boundary force was wise. It exercised a steadying influence, but there are advantages in placing responsibility for maintaining order squarely upon the shoulders of the Indian and Pakistan armies respectively, and the temporary establishment of military headquarters for each force in Lahore should make co-ordination easier. Refugees Over 1,000,000

The refugees now number over 1,000,000 and present a serious problem to both Governments. The Sikh rising, carefully planned and carried out with the most ruthless ferocity, has driven a pitiful flood of Moslem fugitives into Western Punjab. The Hindu and Sikh population of that province, fearing reprisals, is moving in mass to Eastern Punjab. In addition to the previous individual loss and suffering inseparable from these sudden and almost uncontrollable migrations of immense numbers of people, the economic consequences of the recent disturbances will be serious. On each side of the border thousands of the most peaceful and industrious citizens have abandoned their livelihood, leaving fields untilled, work undone and responsibilities, public as well as private, wholly unregarded. The effects will be cumulative and must take long to remedy.

Only less serious is the blow to commerce, industry and agriculture from the total breakdown of railway communications between the two Dominions caused bv the systematic attacks upon trains and the blocking of roads by crowds of refugees.

Both India and Pakistan have ample cause to repent this fearful outburst of communal intolerance. The lesson for both is that such tragedies can be avoided only bv the closest and most vigilant co-operation. Appalling Butchery

The Associated Press’ correspondent, who has just toured the Punjab, said a courier told Mr. Nehru of the new appalling butchery of Hindus and Sikhs in a remote section of Pakistan Punjab and it was only with difficulty that Hindu troops who knew of it were restrained from taking reprisals. A small Hindu military force, which was sent into the Shakirgah district, 50 miles south-east of Sialkot, to protect 120.000 Sikhs and Hindus, found only 1500 survivors.

Two thousand persons had escaped into the adjoining Jammu State. Roads, fields and villages were littered with thousands of bodies of the victims. Mr. Nehru is reported to have told his associates that more survivors probably escaped, but he was convinced that a shocking tragedy had occurred.

The courier said .the people were trapped because two sides of the district were bounded by the swollen River Ravi, with the Moslems controlling the ferry-boats and the only bridge. Mobs formed almost a solid barrier across the third side. 6000 Women Missing

The courier also reported that Indian troops wanted an expedition of their forces to sweep into Pakistan in search of 6000 young women who. they believed, the Moslems had abducted in the Shakirgah massacre.

A communique of the newly-created East Punjab military area said that troops were in action at several places today against armed bands raiding the refugee columns-

A West Punjab communique said the province is generally quiet.

Although there are still marauding gangs of Sikhs burning Moslem districts in East Punjab, and there are still towns in the West Punjab where the Hindu and Sikh inhabitants may be butchered, the main slaughter is over, says the Times correspondent in Lahore.

The crisis is changing in character. The chief problem now is large-scale looting and sporadic attacks on refugees.

The reasons for the decreased violence include: 1. Safety.

2. The large-scale evacuation has left few villages to burn and few communities to kill. 3. The determined efforts _of the leaders to check the calamity show signs at last of percolating to the lower administrative levels.

A vast transfer of the population is in progress. There arc no means of estimating the number involved, but it cannot bo less than 1.000,000 and may be 2.000,000. The permanence of the transfer depends on whether confidence can be restoredPeasants Trek Westwards

Moslems are trekking west. Nearly all are simple peasants. If they can be settled in West Punjab they may slav permanently. The Government’s policy is to settle them as soon as possible on vacated farms so that the autumn crops can be harvested. The feud between Moslems and Sikhs is so deep that it will be many years before the Sikhs will feel secure in the Moslem majority area.

The Hindus in West Punjab were mostly shopkeepers, officials and middlemen. Unless they return soon, the recovery of West Punjab will be indefinitely delayed. The slaughter in East Punjab is greater than in the west because the Sikhs are better armed and organised, but the brutalities are just as bad on both sides.

The Pakistan Government is worried by the chaos in West Punjab and has sent 400 personal letters to retired British officers of the Indian Civil Service and the police offering them liberal terms to come back at ohee on three to five years’ contracts.

The terms include double pay during termination leave, and full pay plus half their pension when their leave ends.