KARACHI RIOTS

Grey River Argus, 23 March 1935, Page 5

KARACHI RIOTS

GOVERNMENT BLAMED. FOR ALLOWING THEIR DEVELOPMENT. (Aus. ami N.Z. Cable Assn.) (Received March 22 at 9 p.m.) LONDON, March 22. "The Times’s” Delhi correspondent states: The Indian Government was virtually censured when a motion adjourning the Assembly, in order to discuss the Karachi shootings, was carried by sixty-seven votes to fiftytwo. The Opposition alleged that the authorities had failed to take suffiri ent precautions to prevent these de velopments arising in a situation which had been forsccu for several days Sir Henry Craik said that the Karachi Magistrate’s report showed that the Moslem mob did not intend to rebury the body that was exhumed. but merely to inflame feeling against the Hindus. The Moslem mot) had stoned two officials had over whelmed the police, and had actually seized one soldier’s rifle. If the sol diers had not fired on the mob. the whole population would have suffered as did the Hindus in 1927 KARACHI, March 20 The Moslems’ death roll is now 40. and it is feared that many more will die. The situation at present is calm, but the Sussex Regiment and armed police are patrolling the city. There were amazing scenes before the clash occurred, when nearly fiftv thousand prayed by the exhumed coffin of the executed man. Even after the troops fired, thousands of fanatical

Moslems refused to abandon the coffin, but religious leaders eventually persuaded them to place the body in the original grave. One British officer and three Indian magistrates were injured by missiles. Influential Hindu and Moslem citizens are raising a fund for the relief of families of the dead. The four miles road from the cemetery presented a ghastly spectacle of dead and wounded, and broken bottles and missiles. Numerous public tributes were paid by Indian residents to the commendable tact with which 2;> British soldiers risked their lives in handling a delicate situation threatening to envelop the city in a terrible communal blaze. No anti-British feeling is resulting from the riot. During yesterday’s riot, a whitehaired Scotswoman. Airs. Daisy Munro, superintendent of the hospital, held its gate against six hundred excited Moslems, who rushed thither to inquire if relatives were possibly killed or wounded when the troops fired. Agitators incited the crowd to force the gate, but Airs. Munro faced the mob. and calmly asked -Whether they preferred being held back by her, or armed police. The crowd remained orderly. Unarmed police took up guard duties. WINSTON ’ S " HUMANITY. ’ ’ LONDON, March 20. Tn the Commons, Air. Churchill, referring to the Karachi trouble, asked why lachrymository gas capsules had not been used to disperse the excited crowds, as was done in the United States. Sir S. Hoare said the Government of India had considered the method and had used it. in the Punjab. He was confident that the troops and police in Karachi would deal with the situation in the best way.