RIOT AT CAWNPORE.

Otago Witness, Issue 3100, 13 August 1913, Page 24

RIOT AT CAWNPORE.

CAUSED BY AGITATORS

DELHI, August 4

The riot at Cawnpore was the result of work by outside Moslem agitators, who bad carefully engineered a plan for playing on the people’s fanaticism and ignorance. The original scheme involved the demolition of a temple, but in response to the citizens’ urgent prayer only a email projection of the wall was destroyed in the construction of the street. There was no excitement in Cawnpore until the agitators started the cry of “Sacrilege !” August 5.

One hundred arrests were made at Cawnpore, many of the prisoners being boys. Some of the trustees of the mosque, who convened a meeting and addressed a nob, were arrested. The fatalities numbered 20.

The incident is viewed with concern, as the Mohammedans were already unduly excited over the Balkans. The police had much difficulty in controlling a meeting at Lucknow to protest against the action of the authorities at Cawnpore. August 6. The official account of the Cawnpore riot states that 20,000 natives mercilessly beat the police before the latter fired. Superintendent Dodd was severely injured. He handled the police with courage and judgment. August 7. The Indian native papers are devoting considerable attention to the Mohammedan unrest. They state that the heart of Islam in India throbs in a common impulse with the hearts of millions of Hindus, and will go out in responsive sympathy to them.