400 Arrests After Temple Slaughter

Northern Advocate, 8 January 1948, Page 3

400 Arrests After Temple Slaughter

KARACHI, Wed. (10 a.m.).—The police arrested 400 people last night after riots which followed the gias-> sacre cf 64 Sikh refugees quartered in a Sikh temple. Sind Cabinet Ministers helped troops restore order. The Prime Minister of Sind (Khan Bahadur Mohammed Khuro) personally arrested a looter. The Minister of Education (Pir Eilahi Bux) laid out looters outside a shop with a walking stick and dispersed them.

Twelve were killed and 60 wounded in incidents throughout the city. A mob of about 8000 Moslems stormed the temple, says Reuters correspondent.

In the temple were 184 Sikh men, women and children, evacuees from Upper Sind, who had been housed there for transit.

After slaughtering their victims the Moslems set the temple on fire. Not one of the Sikh survivors escaped unhurt. As the flames rose, the Moslems rushed through the streets and looted the Hindu quarters In further incidents 12 more people were killed and about 60 wounded.

TAKEN BY SURPRISE Troops grappled with the rioters and members of the Pakistan Cabinet took a personal share in dealing with the looters.

The Hindu bazaar was set on fire last night, but all was reported quiet at midnight, with the city under a curfew and heavily patrolled by police and troops.

The attack on the temple apparently took the authorities by surprise. The Sikhs were slaughtered in their sanctuary before the police could be mobilised.

The police arrested 400 people during the night after the riots and looting. COMPLAINT TO UNO The Security Council has agreed to the Pakistan request for postponement of consideration of the Indian complaint about events in Kashmir. The president of the Council, M. Fernand van Lagenhove (Belgium) addressed identical telegrams to Pakistan and India, making urgent appeals to both countries to abstain from any action which might aggravate the situation and make action by the Council more difficult.

The debate on the subject will begin early next week or not later than January 15. CLASH WITH RAIDERS Indian patrols clashed with about 2500 raiders who crossed the Jammu frontier from the Pakistan district of Sialkot and retreated after looting and burning 10 border villages, says an Indian Defence Ministry communique. The communique claimed that 79 raiders were killed. Reuters New Delhi correspondent quotes military circles in Jammu as stating that the raiders used 25-pound-ers and howitzers in the recent fighting.

The Indian Minister of Works (Mr N. V. Gadgil), the Kashmir Premier (Sheik Abdullah) and Mr Nehru's principal private secretary (Mr H. V. T. Iyengar) all denied reports that the Soviet Union proposed to build an allweather road between Russia and Kashmir.

They declared that it was hardly a practical possibility. The British Government has given £20,000 to a fund being raised in Britain for the relief of suffering caused in India and Pakistan by the disturbances since the transfer of power in August.