EAST-WEST PUNJAB REFUGEES

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22447, 30 September 1947, Page 3

EAST-WEST PUNJAB REFUGEES

FLOODS INCREASING MISERY / (N.Z.P.A.—Reuter— Copyright.) '(11.30 a.m.) NEW DELHI, September 29. About 600,000 Hindu and Sikh refugees from Pakistan’s West Punjab have so far settled on 700,000 acres of land in the Indian Dominion of East Punjab, stated the East Punjab spokesman. He added that the East Punjab Government was working on the assumption that all 4,500,000 Moslems in East Punjab and 4,000,000 Hindus and Sikhs in West Punjab would ultimately be , involved in the transfer of populations.

■ It is estimated that the Moslems were leaving in East Punjab 2,500,000 acres of cultivated land while the Hindus and Sikhs in‘West Punjab were leaving 3,300,000 acres. The spokesman said the big problem before the Government was to settle the agricultural population from West Punjab on about 60 per cent of the area which had been occupied by them. The military spokesman stated that the movements of columns of refugees between East and West Punjab, which the Heavy rains in the last few days had checked, have now been resumed. The official spokesman stated that the peak of the killing had been passed in East and West Punjab. The Governments now faced the twin problems of organising the orderly evacuation and rehabilitation ..of the refugees. ■ The Associated Press correspondent says the announcement was made as rains and heavy floods piled ies on the refugees on both sides of the border. . , In Lahore today the West Punjab Ministry for refugees announced that the earlier estimate of 1200 Moslem refugees killed in the Amritsar train massacre on September 22 is incorrect. “Not less than 2000 Moslems were killed," said the Ministry. Floods from the River Beas, near Lahore, have drowned 1000 Moslem refugees in a camp on the river-bank, states the West Punjab Government. Renter’s correspondent says the West Punjab Government, fearing that even a natural disaster such as this drowning would be blamed on the Sikhs and Hindus, sent criers with drums through the Streets of Lahore to announce that the flooding was caused by heavy rains in the North Punjab hills and not by S3bot3§6« The floods put the power station and water pumping station out of action for 36 hours and drove thousands in lowlying parts of the city from their homes.