City Of 500,000 In Flames

Northern Advocate, 28 August 1947, Page 7

City Of 500,000 In Flames

The Daily Express correspondent at Ludhianna, East Punjab, says the city of Ludhianna, which has a strong Moslem majority in its 500.000 population, and which is 190 miles north of New Delhi, went up in flames today when its 100,000 Sikhs, aided by Sikh police, began an attack on Moslems. The correspondent says: “I drove into Ludhianna this morning only half an hour after the biggest single action in the Sikh war against the Moslems started. “Wild, screaming mobs were in full control of the blazing city. “Moslems were barricaded in their homes, beating war drums and hurling home-made bombs on the Sikh police. “I watched Sikh mobs, aided by police, setting fire to Moslem homes and any Moslem who showed himself

was hunted to death with every weapon, from spears to tommy-guns.” The Moslems appeared to have started the battle when they left a trail of dead men and screaming women in Hindu and Sikh houses earlier in the morning. A storm of shots met three platoons of boundary force troops who arrived with two tanks. The troops had to confine themselves to cutting off and protecting whatever Moslem areas they could reach. The correspondent adds that another battle occurred between boundary force troops and 5000 Moslems armed with repeater weapons, who were gathering to attack Sikh villages in the north-east Punjab district of Desuya.

The boundary force had to await the arrival 'of two Sherman tanks to cover its advance before the Moslems dispersed after an hour’s shooting.