Muslim League Attack on Sikhs
and Hindus in the Punjab 1947

“These figures show that the setting up a separate sovereign State of Pakistan on the lines claimed by the Muslim League, would not solve the communal minority problem; nor can we see any justification for including within a sovereign Pakistan those districts of the Punjab and of Bengal and Assam in which the population is predominantly non-Muslim. Every argument that can be used in favour of Pakistan can equally in our view be used in favour of the exclusion of non-Muslim areas from Pakistan. This point would particularly affect the position of the Sikhs.

“We therefore considered whether a smaller sovereign Pakistan confined to the Muslim majority areas alone might be a possible basis of compromise. Such a Pakistan is regarded by the Muslim League as quite impracticable because it would entail the exclusion from Pakistan of a large slice of Western Bengal, including Calcutta, in which city the Muslims form 23.6 per cent of the population. We ourselves are also convinced that any solution which involves a radical partition of the Punjab and Bengal, as this would do, would be contrary to the wishes and interests of a very large proportion of the inhabitants of these provinces. Bengal and the Punjab each has its own common language and a long history and tradition. Moreover, any division of the Punjab would of necessity divide the Sikhs leaving substantial bodies of Sikhs on both sides of the boundary. We have, therefore, been forced to the conclusion that neither a larger nor a smaller sovereign State of Pakistan would provide an acceptable solution for the communal problem.”

What the Cabinet Mission had conceded to the Muslim League was the substance of its demand. But the Muslim League did not really want to work in co-operation with the other elements in the national life of India. What it wanted was to dominate certain areas and to plan for the conquest, if possible, of the rest. Later events like the Pakistan invasion of Kashmir and its actively abetting a war against India in the Hindu-majority and landlocked State of Hyderabad, have conclusively proved that such have been, for more than a decade at least, the designs which have been shaping themselves in the programme and policy of the Muslim League.

Apart from electing the Constituent Assembly and the Group Assemblies immediately the Viceroy was to include in his Executive Council, representatives of the people, with the agreed convention that these representatives would work as a Cabinet with the Viceroy as constitutional head; though the constitution, pending a new one to be framed by the Constituent Assembly, was to be the same as before. In this Cabinet the. Muslim League would have 5 seats out of 14 (the Viceroy, to be called the President of the Interim Government, was to be the fifteenth). The Congress was to claim 5, and since one Congress seat on the Cabinet was also to go to a Muslim (actually at one time there were two Congress Muslims in the Cabinet), so the total Muslim quota in the Cabinet would be quite large. But the Muslim League decided to reject the Cabinet Mission Scheme. Later, finding that it would not suit it to remain in the wilderness indefinitely, it did came into the Interim Government, but as the history of those fateful days shows, it came in more to struggle and disrupt from within than to collaborate for the well-being of the country.

The Council of the All-India Muslim League met in Bombay and on July 27, 1946 it finally sealed its rejection of the Cabinet Mission Plan, and decided to launch its famous ‘Direct Action’ for the achievement of Pakistan, which it could not achieve by peaceful means. The resolution of the Council ran as follows:-

“Whereas the League has to-day resolved to reject the proposals embodied in the Statement of the Cabinet Delegation and the Viceroy of May 16, 1946, due to the intransigeance of Congress on the one hand and the breach of faith with the Muslim by the British Government on the other; and whereas Muslim India has exhausted without success all efforts to find a peaceful solution of the Indian problem by compromise and constitutional means; whereas the Congress is bent upon setting up a caste Hindu Raj in India with the connivance of the British, and whereas recent events have shown that power politics and not justice and fair play are the deciding factors in Indian affairs; whereas it has become abundantly clear that the Muslims of India would not rest content with anything less than the immediate establishment of an independent and fully sovereign State of Pakistan and would resist any attempt to impose any constitution, long-term or short-term, or setting up of any Interim Government at the Centre without the approval and consent of the Muslim League, the council of the All-India Muslim League is convinced that the time has now come for the Muslim nation to resort to direct action to vindicate their honour and to get rid of the present slavery under the British and contemplated future of Caste Hindu domination.

“This Council calls upon the Muslim nation to stand to a man being their sole representative organisation, the All-India Muslim League, and be ready for every sacrifice.”

“This Council directs the Working Committee to prepare forthwith a programme of direct action to carry out the policy initiated above and to organize the Muslims for the coming struggle to be launched as and when necessary.”

The Muslim League was now definitely and irrevocably on the war-path. Its war was declared against the Hindus and the Sikhs, against whose opposition it was to establish its independent State of Pakistan. The speeches made by Mr. Jinnah and other Muslim League leaders were provocative in the extreme, and such as to give the Muslims not only broad hints, but clear instigation to attack non-Muslims and by this method of warfare to bring them to their knees if possible, and to force them into the acceptance of Pakistan.

Some of the things said by Mr. Jinnah on this occasion are these:

“What we have done to-day is the most historic act in our history. Never have we in the whole history of the League done anything except by constitutional methods. But now we are forced into this position. Today we bid good-bye to constitutional methods.”

Again, referring to the new threat and programme of Direct Action, he said,

“To-day we have forged a pistol and are in a position to use it.”

Again, talking of the threat of Direct Action he said:

“We mean every word of it. We do not believe in equivocation.”

Then he quoted the Persian Poet, Firdausi, in these words:

“If you seek peace, we do not want War. But if you want War, we will accept it unhesitatingly.”

Still more provocative speeches, if possible, were made by other Muslim League leaders on this occasion. Nawabzada Liaqat Ali Khan, now Prime Minister of the Dominion of Pakistan, elucidating the implications of the Direct Action threat, said:

“Direct Action means resort to non-constitutional methods, and that can take any form which may suit the conditions under which we live. We cannot eliminate any methods. Direct Action means any action against the Law.”

Sardar Abdur Rab Nishtar, now a member of the Pakistan Government, declared:

“Pakistan can only be achieved through shedding blood of ourselves, and if need be, and if opportunity arose, by shedding blood of others. Muslims are no believers in Ahimsa.”

Raja Ghanzafar Ali Khan, lately also member of the Pakistan Government, speaking to a huge Muslim gathering at Lahore on the 31st August, 1946 outlined the Muslim League Direct Action as the economic political and social boycott of the Congress and ‘the following of a scorched earth policy.’

Mr. Jinnah held out the threat that Direct Action by Muslims would lead to one hundred times more destruction than the Direct Action of the Hindus (meaning the Congress).

Earlier ill the Convention of Muslim Legislators held in Delhi in April 1946, equally provocative and instigatory things had been said:

Ghulam Mustafa Shah Gilani said:

“Any attempt to prevent the establishment of Pakistan would lead to bloodshed.” Sardar Shaukat Hyat Khan said:

“The Punjab Muslims do not believe in non-violence and should not, therefore, be given cause for grievance because once the Muslim lion is infuriated it would become difficult to subdue him.”

Sir Feroze Khan Noon had observed:

“I tell you this much that if we find that we have to fight Great Britain for placing us under one Central Hindu Raj, then the havoc which Muslims will plays will put to shame what Jenghez and Halaku Khan did.”

Sir Ghulam Hussain Hadayatullah, at that time Premier of Sind and later under Pakistan, Governor of the same Province, said:

“The Congress should understand that unless they make friends with us and accede to our demands there will he no peace in India.”

The last words bear a special significance in view of what was destined to happen in Bengal and the Punjab principally, and in several other Provinces of India, not long after.

Mr. H. S. Suhrawardy, Premier of Bengal at that time, spoke words still more ominous and pregnant with a sinister significance the full force of which was not realized by the country perhaps at the time.

“We await the clarion call of the Qaid-i-Azam.”

The ‘Clarian Call’ was answered about a fortnight later in the shape of the Calcutta, Noakhali and other riots in Bengal, the ghastliest and most terrible seen till then in India, to be bettered in this respect only by the Muslim holocaust of the minorities in the Punjab, in 1947.

To these words of defiance and provocation was joined the tremendous and loud chorus of hate and instigation to fighting and rioting by the platform speakers of the Muslim League and the inflammatory articles in the League-controlled press. The country in these weeks (the month of August, 1946) passed through a period of foreboding and tense expectancy. The new Interim Government to which the Viceroy had invited both the Congress and the Muslim League was due to take office on the 2nd of September, 1946. The Congress accepted the offer but the League rejected it. All appeared to be set for the word of command on the part of the League to let slip the blood hounds which would plunge the country into the horrors of a terrible Civil War. The comments of the British Press, seldom pro-Congress in its views and very consistent in voicing a pro-League bias, were on this occasion revealing, as they found in this Direct Action threat of the Muslim League nothing less than the design to plung the country into a Civil War: Said the ‘News Chronicle’ of the 30th July, 1946, a day after the passage of the Direct Action Resolution:

“What precisely does Mr. Jinnah think he will achieve by embracing violence - and at a moment when so substantial a part of his claims has been conceded?

“Does he think that communal strife will benefit India or even the Muslim part of India? He has only to look at other parts of Asia to see what lies at the end of that tunnel.

“Does he want his country to become another China, ravaged and utterly impoverished by interminable Civil War?

“It is hopeless, of course, if Mr. Jinnah is wedded to complete intransigeance - if, as now seems the case he really is thirsting for a holy war.

“If Mr. Jinnah nosy resorts to violence, it will be very difficult to save India from disaster.”

In the above extract occur the prophetic words ‘Civil War’ and ‘holy War’, and the Muslim League attitude plunged the country soon after into both these.

The Muslim League formed a Council of Action to plan its Direct Action Programme. Its members were: Nawabzada Liaqat Ali Khan (now Prime Minister of Pakistan); Nawab Iftikhar Hussain Khan of Mamdot, (lately Premier of West Punjab), Mian Mumtaz Daulatana (lately Minister of West Punjab), Sardar Shaukat Hyat Khan (several times Minister); Mian Iftikharuddin, Begum Shah Nawaz, Sardar Abdur Rab Nishtar, I. I. Cundrigar and H. S. Suhrawardy (at that time Muslim League Premier of Bengal).

In order to implement its programme of Direct Action, which, it must be noted, was not to take the form of Ahimsa, the Muslim League began to make brisk preparations for attack on Hindus and equally well, Sikhs. The Muslim League private army called the Muslim National Guards, which has already been referred to, began to expand. All kinds of Muslim riff-raff, disbanded members of the Civic Guards, and such other elements were the favourite recruiting ground for this body. The Muslim criminal elements found in the National Guard a new scope for their criminal proclivities as providing opportunity both for their anti-social acts and the satisfaction of having done something meritorious in the service of Islam. The Police, which in several provinces was overwhelmingly Muslim, helped in this recruitment, which was not so much of a secret, and in the collection of arms, equipment and petrol (this last for purposes of incendiarism). Jeeps and lorries were possessed by the National Guard in the larger towns; they had stocks of steel helmets purchased from the Disposals Department. (This article was recovered in large numbers in the search of the Muslim National Guards Office at Lahore in January, 1947). Besides, large numbers of lethal weapons, such as knives, daggers, swords and spears were made and stocked by the Muslim National Guards. Well-to-do Muslim firms and individuals were reported in the months of August and September, 1946 to have distributed daggers and knives among Muslims of Lahore and Amritsar. Sword-making as an industry made rapid progress among Muslims in the Punjab, where for several years last restrictions on the possession and carrying about of the sword bad been removed. Parcels of knives were frequently intercepted by the Railway Police in the Provinces of Bombay, Central Provinces, Bihar and the United Provinces while in transit from Wazirabad and Sialkot centres of the cutlery industry in the Punjab, to the Muslim Leaguers of those Provinces. The cutlers of Wazirabad and Sialkot were all Muslim. While many such parcels were intercepted, many more must have got safe through. In the Punjab itself where the Police force was overwhelmingly Muslim, there was little check on the movement of these weapons, and so the Punjabi Muslims were very well stocked with them in all districts. In Bengal, where a Muslim League Ministry was in the saddle, very much the same happened. As the Calcutta and Eastern Bengal Riots showed, the Muslim preparation for attack and destruction had been terribly widespread and efficient.

Besides lethal weapons, there were fairly large quantities of firearms and means of incendiarism in the possession of Muslims. In the Punjab, besides smuggling arms from India with the help and connivance of the Muslim Police, the Muslims with the same facility to hand, could do successful gun-running from the tribal areas in the North-West. While a Hindu or Sikh carrying illegal weapons on him would be hauled up under the Arms Act, Muslims were comparatively safe in so doing, unless they happened to be detected by some non-Muslim police officer. Large quantities of petrol were obtained and conserved by the Muslims at a time when petrol rationing had been in force for several years, and this hoarded petrol was used in setting ablaze whole localities of non-Muslims with fiendish rapidity and efficiency, and thousands were trapped in the rapidly spreading flames and burnt alive.

The Direct Action of the Muslim League for which elaborate preparations had by now been made, was ready to be launched on an India-wide scale. The date fixed for launching this action was August the 16th, 1946. The country was awaiting the day with anxiety in view of the provocative and inflammatory speeches of the Muslim League leaders, and open threats of fighting. Mr. H. S. Suhrawardy, Premier of Bengal greatly excited the minds of the Muslims of his province by proclaiming that the Bengal Government would declare their independence of the Central Government if the Congress came into power. The Sind Muslim League Premier made a similar declaration. Both declarations were intended to be provocative, as otherwise these Muslim League leaders knew full well that under the British Crown no Indian Province could claim independence of the Central Government, and any such independence could last at best only a few hours. But such and other declarations had their effect in inflaming Muslim passions against the Hindus.

The Muslim League Bengal Government declared August 16, 1946 to be a public holiday throughout Bengal, to celebrate the “Direct Action Day”. The effect of this, in the very temperate and restrained language of Shri S. L. Ghosh of the A. B. Patrika is described thus:

“When a political party, by virtue of its being in power, enforces its party celebration on the whole administrative machinery by declaring a public holiday, it is natural that some at least of its adherents should infer from it that the party is the law of the land, and that anything done in the name of the party is above the scope of the law,”

The police, mostly Muslim in personnel, were, if not actually in complicity, definitely indifferent to the murder, loot and arson of the Hindus going on around them. Such a horrible carnage ensued as had not been heard of in India in the three-odd decades during which communal rioting had been heard of in India. The Muslim mobs consisting of people who mostly wore the uniform of the Muslim National Guards and carried the Muslim League flag, burnt, massacred, looted and raped to these slogans: ‘Lar Kar lenge Pakistan’; ‘Mar Kar Lenge Pakistan’; ‘Dena Hoga Pakistan’; ‘Pakistan Kayam Karo’ etc. As the statesman of Calcutta in an editorial put it, the Muslim League ministry for a good long time (for practically two days) hesitated whether a little rioting would not after all be good; and so nothing was done to summon the military and to quell rioting, which could not be done by the demoralized police force, over-weighed by its Muslim personnel.

The horrors of this rioting make a harrowing story. Mobs went about their demonaic work, killing and burning. During the first two days of the rioting which lasted for more than 5 days, the Calcutta fire brigade had to attend 900 calls for meeting cases of arson. One eye-witness described the scene in these words.

“A vivid picture of the panic caused by hooligans in the Calcutta riots was given by a member of the staff of the Associated Press of India, who escaped savage butchery or maiming and reestablished contract with the office to-day.

“Living in the heart of a zone where murder, loot and arson raged for two days, he said that the terror-stricken cries of victims as they were being maimed and stabbed were still ringing in his ears as he was relating his story. He and his friends living in the Cosmopolitan Hotel could not rescue them as well-armed hooligans surrounded the area.

“Equipped with plentiful supplies of petrol from a pump the owner of which had abandoned it in his flight for safety, the mob carried out a campaign of arson. Buildings were set on fire and fed liberally with looted motor fuel.

“At the hospital the dead and even more, the living maimed ones told the story of gross cruelty. There were deep stab wounds, heads and limbs broken with heavy lathi blows, and cases where the bone was broken to pieces. Every living moment was agony.

“The body of a six-month old child killed on the spot was brought by ambulance with his father and mother badly injured ... ”

This is only one glimpse of what happened for five days over a large area. Hooligans went about with full preparation for murder and arson. Petrol was in plentiful supply, and the victims were left no option but to be burnt to ashes in their burning houses or to come out and be stabbed. The total number of killed in these days is estimated at 5,000 and those injured at 15,000.

The preparations for forcing the Pakistan issue which had been going on for a pretty long time plunged Calcutta during these fateful days into blood. The swiftness of the attack, the large area affected, the heavy casualties in killed and houses burnt, the Similarity of methods used by the assailants everywhere and the readiness with which they came out to attack - leave no manner of doubt that the League had been preparing for this attack. Similar but smaller outbreaks occurred at other places also. One such was in Delhi.

It was clear that the Muslim League was leading the country towards Civil War. It wanted to force its rule on unwilling and large minorities. It wanted to create conditions in which it would become impossible for Muslims and non-Muslims to live together. To effect this consummation, it was using the methods of murder, loot and arson on a wide and large scale. That this was the temper and aim of the League, is testified by the opinion of the ‘News Chronicle’ quoted above. The Civil & Military Gazette of Lahore, by no means a paper hostile to the Muslims, said apropos the Calcutta riots in its editorial in its issue of August 20, 1946 (four days after the commencement of these riots).

“We have termed the jeremiads of Muslim Leaguers ‘near hysterical nonsense,’ but they represent a trend of thought and a psychological attitude which hold the utmost danger for the whole country. Words are being broadcast everyday which will make fanatics of law-abiding citizens and throw them into the same camp with the lowest of goondas.”

More significantly still, this same editorial says.

“Authentic reports from all parts of India describe the country as a powder-magazine, and at the moment the Muslim League is holding a torch which may send it sky-high. If the spark is applied, the present League leadership will have to shoulder responsibility for events which will not only blast for ever all hopes of Hindu-Muslim co-operation in any field, but which will ruin all chances of India’s progress for decades.”

That the Muslim League ministry of Bengal, and the obliging British Governor had been criminally negligent if not actually conniving at the attack on the non-Muslim population of Calcutta, was so strongly the opinion held in the country, that an Enquiry Commission, presided over by Sir Patrick Spens, Chief justice of India, was set up by the Governor-General to inquire into the degree of responsibility of the League Government in, if not abetting, at least conniving at the riots and failing to take action when these broke out.

So deeply had the poison of the hatred preached by the Muslim League seeped into the very soul of the Muslim people, and so great was the tension in the country as a result of this, that rioting occurred all over India on a more or less large scale. Soon before the Direct Action Day, there had been an attack by Muslims on Sikhs at Abbotabad, in the N.-W. F. Province. An account of the incident is as follows:

“(On July 28, 1946) Muslims held a public meeting in a garden near Gurdwara Singh Sabha. The District Magistrate and the Superintendent of Police were present near the meeting place, but no precautions were taken. Stones and brickbats were exchanged between a few Sikhs in the Gurdwara and the Muslim mob outside.

“Muslims made repeated attempts to set fire to Gurdwara shops. These fires were put out by the Military fire-brigade. The Muslim mob divided into groups and began to loot and set on fire Hindu and Sikh shops. More than two dozen shops were looted.

“The Muslim mob met no resistance except at two places, where a gun was fired by a Sikh shopkeeper and a Gurkha Chaukidar. Sikhs were being harassed by Muslim policemen.”

This was only a foretaste of Direct Action and the Pakistan to come. Abbotabad and its adjoining area witnessed large-scale murder and looting of Sikhs and Hindus not long after this in December, 1946 and January, 1947. And then came March, 1947 with the succeeding terrible months.

An attack on Hindus occurred in Delhi on the 12th August, 1946. There was rioting in such vastly different places as Cawnpore, Bombay, Poona, Ahmedabad, Dacca and a few others. The lesson of it all was becoming very abundantly clear. The Muslim League was waging its war in earnest on non-Muslims to achieve its Pakistan.

The statements publicly made by the top-ranking Muslim League leaders reveal the temper and intentions of these leaders and the organization whose policy and programme they had framed. On September 9, 1946 only two weeks after the Calcutta Carnage, after the attack on Sir Shafaat Ahmed Khan, and the situation akin to Civil War which was developing inside the country, Mr. H. S. Sahrawardy, Premier of Bengal, said:

“Muslim India means business.”

How grimly it ‘meant business’ was shown by the Calcutta killing, and was later on shown by Noakhali, N.-W. F. P. and the Punjab.

Mr. Jinnah in a statement issued from Bombay on September 11, 1946 offered to the Hindus the choice between creating Pakistan and forcing a Civil War in the country.

Replying to a question seeking suggestions for the restoration of peace in India, he said:”

“In view of the horrible slaughter in various parts of India, I am of the opinion that the authorities, both Central and Provincial, should take up immediately the question of exchange of population to avoid brutal recurrence of that which had taken place where small minorities have been butchered by the overwhelming majorities.”

Thus, scouting any suggestion that there could be peace and amity in the country, he advocated exchange of population-the uprooting of millions-and as it later turned out to be, of over twelve millions, and the butchering of about a million. This was the direction in which the Muslim League was inevitably leading the country.

What shocked the conscience of India even more than Calcutta, was the large-scale murder, loot, arson, rape, abduction and forced marriage of Hindu women in the Noakhali District of Eastern Bengal. This time the trouble came about in the October of 1946. It appears the League enthusiasts were on the look-out for an area of operation where they could be sure of very little resistance and where they could demonstrate to the Hindus in action as to what was in store for them in case they did not accept the Muslim League demand of Pakistan. In Calcutta the Hindus - although on the first two days they were completely surprised, and reeled under the sudden blow, and lost more than a thousand in killed - yet on the subsequent days they rallied and gave the Muslims as good as they got. The Muslim League perhaps realized the folly of having tried out Calcutta. A better spot should be selected, and this time it was Noakhali and the adjoining area of Eastern Bengal.

The district of Noakhali is almost at the extreme end of Eastern Bengal, surrounded by heavy Muslim majority areas. This district itself has perhaps the lowest percentage of non-Muslim population - the Muslim percentage being as high as 81.35. So, while it was particularly dastardly of the Muslims of this area to have chosen to fall upon the Hindus of this area, it was, from the point of their own scheme, a fit choice; for its very sparse Hindu population could offer little resistance to their onslaught. Attacks on a scale as large as Noakhali also occurred in the district of Tipperah, neighbouring on Noakhali, and with a Muslim population of 77.09%.

As the trouble broke out, for some time the country did not know about it. Noakhali is a far-away part of Bengal, and the Muslim League Ministry of Bengal did not allow the news of the carnage to trickle though as long as they could help it. So, the assailants had it all their own way for several days, unchecked.

The horror and the underlying conspiracy of this occurrence can best be described in the words of Shri S. L. Ghosh of the A. B. Patrika, quoted above. Says Shri S. L. Ghosh:

“The four days’ delay in receiving the news indicates at once the magnitude of preparations of the lawless elements as well as the criminal inefficiency of the administration machinery.² It took ten days, fraught with horror, disgrace and torture for nearly two lakhs of Hindus for the Army to reach the neighbourhood of disaster, another ten days for them to move into the inner fringe of the disturbed area, and over a month to comb the interior of the devastated countryside.

“The horror of the Noakhali outrage is unique in modern history in that it was not a simple case of turbulent members of the majority community killing off helpless members of the minority community, but was one whose chief aim (to quote Dr. Syama Prosad Mookerjee) was mass conversion, accompanied by loot, arson and wholesale devastation ... No section of the people has been spared, the wealthier classes being dealt with more drastically. Murder also was part of the plan, but it was mainly reserved for those who were highly influential or who resisted. Abduction and outrage on women and forcible marriages were also resorted to; but their number cannot be easily determined. The slogans used and the methods employed indicate that it was all part of a plan for the simultaneous establishment of Pakistan. The demand for subscriptions for the Muslim League and for other purposes, including conversion ceremonies, showed that mass attackers, and their leaders were inspired by the League ideology.

“Apparently, the strategy of terrorisation adopted in Calcutta had failed to achieve the objective of recognition of Pakistan. The zealots of Pakistan in Noakhali and the southern portion of Tepperah, therefore, sought to make that muslim-majority area exclusive to a certain community, and thus convert it into the fortress of Eastern Pakistan, by forcible mass conversion of the other community…… (The League) leaders tried to minimize the enormity of the crimes…… they tended to confirm the impression that they were in close sympathy with the attackers and their nefarious policy and that this was the second phase of the direct action plan of the Muslim League to achieve Pakistan.

“It is false to suggest that the perpetrators were a gang of hooligans or that they mostly consisted of outsiders. The local people were the perpetrators in many cases and there was a general mass sympathy for what happened.

“The total number of evacuees, those, that is, who could leave the area of the disturbance alive, will be somewhere between 50 to 75 thousands including men, women and children of all conditions and castes.

“Over and above these persons, there will be another 50,000 or even more who are still living within the danger zone in what may be called the no man’s land. Theirs is the most tragic fate. They have all been subjected to conversion and are still³ under the clutches of their oppressors. Most of them have lost everything, and they suffer from both physical and mental collapse. Their humiliation and torture know - no limitations. Their names have been changed; their womenfolk insulted; their properties looted; they are being compelled to dress, to eat and to live like their so-called new brothers in faith. The male members have to attend the mosques, Maulvies come and train them at home; they are at the mercy of their captors for their daily food and indeed for their very existence. . . .”

These occurrences shocked Mahatma Gandhi, and indeed the whole of India, very deeply. The Mahatma asked Acharya Kripalani; President of the Congress, to go to Noakhali and to see what could be done to bring relief to suffering humanity there, and to try to restore good relations between the communities there. Not long after, the Mahatma himself went there, and made his famous village to village, nay house to house trek, trying to restore good-will. How little the Muslim League fanatics cared for the Mahatma’s noble teaching was made abundantly clear by what happened hardly within a month of the Mahatma’s pilgrimage to Noakhali, in the North-Western Frontier Province, and another two months after that in the Punjab.

Acharya Kripalani’s account of what he observed in Noakhali substantiates the statement of Dr. Mookerjee reproduced above. Said the Acharya:

“Next morning (October 22, 1946) we visited the interior of one of the affected areas. The place was Charhaim. Charhaim village and the surrounding areas are occupied by Namasudras (scheduled castes) numbering about 20,000. It was completely destroyed. Most of the houses were burnt. People were living in sheds, built from the ruins of their houses. All their property had been looted. Cash, ornaments, utensils and clothes, and cattle also, had been taken away by the raiders. All the males and females had only the clothes they were wearing. They had no food to eat. Their condition was pitiable in the extreme. There had been cases of murder, but it was not possible during the short time at our disposal to ascertain the number of the killed. Cases of abduction were reported to us. Even after looting and arson the villagers were obliged to embrace Islam; They had to perform ‘Namaz’ and recite the ‘Kalma’ ... All the images of the houses were broken and temples looted and destroyed. The conch-shell bangles of women and vermillion marks, signs of their married life, were removed.”

This was a fairly representative area. Acharya Kripalani arrived at certain conclusions regarding the Noakhali trouble, which are as follows:-

1. The attack on the Hindu population in the districts of Noakhali and Tipperah was previously arranged and prepared for. It was deliberate, if not directly engineered by Muslim League. It was the result of Muslim League propaganda. The local evidence all went to prove that prominent League leaders in the villages had a large hand in it.

2. The authorities had warnings about what was coming. The warnings were conveyed to them orally and then in writing by prominent Hindus in the areas concerned.

3. The Muslim officials connived at the preparations going on. A few encouraged. There was a general belief among the Mussalmans that the Government would take no action if anything was done against the Hindus.

4. The modus operandi was for the Muslims to collect in batches of hundreds and sometimes thousands and to march to Hindu villages or Hindu houses in villages of mixed population. They first demanded subscriptions for the Muslim League and sometimes for the Muslim victims of the Calcutta riots. These enforced subscriptions were heavy, sometimes amounting to Rs. 10,000 and more. Even after the subscriptions were realized, the Hindu population was not safe. The same or successive crowd appeared on the scene later and looted the Hindu houses. The looted houses in most cases were burnt ... Sometimes before a house was looted the inmates were asked to embrace Islam. However, even conversion did not give immunity against loot and arson.

The slogans raised by the attacking Muslim crowds were those of the Muslim League, such as ‘League Zindabad’ ‘Pakistan Zindabad’; ‘Larke Lenge Pakistan’, ‘Marke Lenge Pakistan’.

5. All those who resisted were butchered. Sometimes they were shot, for the rioters had a few shot-guns with them.

Sometimes people were killed even when there was no resistance offered or expected I have on record cases where 50 to 60 members of one family were brutally murdered. Some families lost all their male members.

6. (Is about the description and habitat of those who indulged in these crimes.)

7. Even after looting, arson and murder the Hindus in the locality were not safe unless they embraced Islam. The Hindu population therefore to save themselves had to embrace Islam en masse ... All the images of gods in Hindu houses were destroyed and all the Hindu temples of the affected area were looted and burnt.

8. There have been cases of forcible marriages There have been cases of abduction.

9. “For obvious reasons it was not possible for me to ascertain the cases of rape. But women complained to Mrs. Kirpalani of having been roughly handled, their conch-shell bangles, the symbol of their married life, having been broken and vermillion marks removed. At one place they were thrown on the ground by the miscreants who removed their vermillion marks with the toes of their feet.”

10 to 13 are about post-riot conditions.

14. The police did not function during the riots. They are doing merely patrol duty now. They say that they had and have no orders to fire except in self-defence. The question of definding themselves never arose, because they did not interfere with the rioters.

“The areas visited had already been devastated and all that I could see were burnt houses and helpless Hindu villagers whether converted or not.”

Scouting any suggestion that the trouble may be economic the Acharya added, “Not a single rich Muslim house had been looted. To me it appeared to be absolutely communal and absolutely one-sided.”

The Congress Working Committee meeting came soon after at Delhi, and its resolution on East Bengal contained the following observations:

“Reports published in the press and statements of public workers depict a scene of bestiality and medieval barbarity that must fill every decent human being with shame, disgust and anger.

“The Committee hold that this outburst of brutality is the direct result of the politics of hate and civil strife that the Muslim League has practised for years past and of the threats of violence that were daily held out in past months.”

This extensive account has been given of Noakhali for this reason, that coming soon after the Direct Action and Calcutta, this was the first large-scale beginning of that wholesale elimination of entire communities, that ‘genocide’ which from now on became the settled programme and policy of the Muslim League, not expressed or admitted officially, but nevertheless pursued and countenanced by it with vigour and with great satisfaction. It was clear after Noakhali as to what India was to expect in the coming months-mass attacks on minorities in Muslim-majority areas, co-operation of Muslim police and the officials with the assailants, indifference of the British bureaucrats, and the hypocritical fathering of the League leaders of the responsibility for these occurrences on the minorities themselves. In the case of Calcutta the League leaders blamed it all on the Hindus-in the case of Noakhali and Tipperah, the figures of casualties and damage were understated to ridiculous figures, or just not noticed. Had there been any regret expressed by the League on these happenings, had they sat up and realized the horror of what had happened and had their conscience pricked them, perhaps the recurrence of large-scale destruction like Noakhali would not have been possible. But the Leaguers viewed these happenings with glee. The programme was working according to plan.

Exactly the same pattern as in Noakhali and Tipperah was repeated during the next five months in other parts of India. These features were common to all these occurrences.

1. Places of occurrence were all heavy Muslim-majority areas - the minority attacked were Hindu or Hindu-Sikh. Successively they are: Noakhali and Tipperah (October, 1946) Hazara (December, 1946 and January, 1947); Rawalpindi (March, 1947 For several weeks); Jhelum, Attock, Campbellpur, Dera Ismail Khan, Hazara, Multan, Gujrat, Gujranwala, Sargodha (all as before-mentioned). Lahore and Amritsar towns had an overwhelming Muslim majority in their populations though in the latter district as a whole the non-Muslims outnumbered the Muslims by a small percentage. In both towns from March, 1947 onwards terrible outrages were perpetrated by Muslims on Hindus and Sikhs, the decisive result in either case being obtained only on the partition of the Punjab.

2. Preparations were made by the Muslim League for attack on the minorities in every case a good time before the actual occurrence. Arms had been collected and distributed. Sufficiently large quantities of petrol and other inflammable substances had been hoarded for incendiarism. Training in swift methods of arson, stabbing, disposal of looted property and the killed had been imparted in the centres of the Muslim National Guards. Muslim police and officials had joined in hatching the plans with the Muslim League leaders and Muslim National Guard workers. The Muslim masses had been aroused to a pitch of anti-Hindu-Sikh fury by violent League propaganda.

3. The attacks were simultaneous, widespread and in places so open and so sure of non-interference by the authorities that the assailants collected and marched with drums beating, shouting Muslim League slogans, and even making military formations. There was nothing secret about these attacks, as the police were already on the side of the attackers.

4. Large-scale arson, murder of males, abduction, rape and dishonour of women, brutalities to children, looting, forcible conversions etc. all these features were common to the localities affected. Those attacked were first asked to pay sums of money to pay off the invaders; then followed more demands, and attacks by outsiders. Local Muslims (that is, those of the village actually attacked) sometimes out of long habits of neighbourly intercourse, kept out of the actual attack, though of course they were in league with the invaders and abetted and helped them.

5. The victims were given no quarter when beseiged. Places of worship were desecrated, and religious feelings were outraged with fiendish gusto. Shaving of Sikhs, feeding of Hindus and Sikhs on beef, circumcision of Hindus and Sikhs, marrying away young girls and widows of Hindus, and Sikhs to Muslims - these practices were resorted to.

6. Police and the officials seldom appeared on the scene till long after the beseiged had been killed and their houses burnt and looted.

7. Muslim League leaders and Press said nothing in condemnation of these outrages. On the other hand, they trotted out imaginary stories of provocation by the non-Muslims, and of supposed retaliation by Muslims. This in every case kept up the morale of the assailants. .

This pattern was repeated in every one of the places that have been mentioned; and while the area of operations was necessarily limited while British power was still there, on the establishment of Pakistan it became general mass murder in West Punjab, in the North-Western Frontier Province, in Sind, Baluchistan and raider-held Kashmir.

The succeeding chapters will narrate the unfolding of this great conspiracy of the Muslim League.

Footnotes:

 
 ^ contents ^ 

In the North-Western Frontier Province a Congress Ministry came into power after defeating a Muslim League Ministry on the floor of the Provincial Legislature. The Muslim League regarded this Province as one of its especial preserves, for the population was overwhelmingly Muslim. But the freedom-loving Pathan character under the guidance of Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan and his brother, Dr. Khan Sahib, had preferred the Congress way over the League way, which was known to be working in collusion with the British bureaucracy, and which moreover, was dominated by reactionary feudal elements - the nawabs and title-holders and the fanatical mullahs. When the Muslim League Direct Action campaign was started, the League leaders naturally thought of stirring up trouble in the North-Western Frontier Province, and thus turning the tide against the Congress ministry, which would naturally pursue a policy of cementing the good relations between Muslims and non-Muslims. As early as July 28, 1946 as narrated earlier, trouble of quite serious nature had occurred in Hazara district - an area which was particularly susceptible to Muslim League propaganda. Hazara is not properly speaking a Pathan area; it is Punjabi-speaking, and not Pushtu, and in its political character takes more after the Punjab, to which it is cognate, than to the rest of the Frontier Province, which is trans-Indus in respect of geography. Local Muslims, along with fanatical marauders from the tribal areas, whom loot and the desire for attacking ‘infidels’ - be they Hindu, Sikh, Christian or any other - would always bring hurtling down the valleys, looted and burnt Hindu and Sikh shops and terrorized the Hindu and Sikh population of the Hazara district. Gurdwaras were attacked, their inmates killed and the holy. places themselves desecrated.

The firm hand of the Congress Government of the Frontier Province for a time kept the communal situation under control. The League was busy intriguing - and there is no doubt that in this intrigue for disturbing the peace of the province, it had the active assistance of the local British bureaucrats. The attitude of the British bureaucracy was made perfectly clear in the got-up attacks on Pandit Nehru’s party, when he made his tour of the tribal areas as Vice-President of the Interim Government of India. This alliance between the League and the British bureaucracy was in evidence everywhere all through the years 1946 and 1947 in stirring up attacks on non-Muslims in the Muslim-majority areas of India.

Calcutta and Noakhali did not bring any condemnation from the League of these criminal attacks on minorities. Far from it - in the League Press the attempt was made to shift the responsibility, where there occurrences were admitted at all, on the Hindus. The Muslim League did not, to begin with, join the Interim Government. The Congress got associated five eminent and capable Muslims in the Interim Government, to fill for the time being the seats which by agreement, the Muslim League should have occupied. One of these Muslim members of the Interim Government, Dr. Shafaat Ahmed Khan was murderously attacked at Simla by some League hirelings, a few days before the Interim Government was to take office. This attack was only part of the League campaign of murder and assault on all who dared to differ from its policy.

In the Hazara District, which was selected by the Muslim League as the venue of its operations against Sikhs and Hindus in July, 1946 and later in December of the same year, the Muslim population is 94.94%. As a matter of fact, in the entire province the Muslim percentage in the population was as high as 91.79. In such a province the life of the minorities is not worth a day’s purchase, if the majority decides to make things hot for them.

On 7. 12. 1946 in the villages of Batal, Uggi, Sum Ilahi Mung and Garhi Jallo, very serious and unprovoked attacks on Hindus and Sikhs occurred. In Batal 11 Hindus and Sikhs were killed, and 11 were wounded. Hindu and Sikh houses were looted. The bazar of Uggi was attacked and Hindu and Sikh shops were set on fire. In this village 5 Hindus and Sikhs were killed. In Sum Ilahi Mung, an attack was made on the Hindu and Sikh evacuees from the two previously mentioned villages, and 14 were killed, with 27 injured. In Garhi Jallo stray killing of Hindus and Sikhs continued, and the Gurdwara of the place was burnt down.

The trouble spread to other parts also of Hazara District. On 18.12.1946 in Garhi Habibullah, in Mansehra Tehsil, one Hindu was abducted and later found killed. In Havelian and Lahore (Hazara), commencing on the same date anti-Hindu-Sikh rioting continued well on into January, 1947. A massacre of Hindus and Sikhs in Havelian was averted only by the timely arrival of the military; but stray killing of Hindus and Sikhs continued for weeks. By the end of December, 1946 conditions in the Havelian area had deteriorated so far that all Hindus and Sikhs of this area had to leave their homes and property at the mercy of the Muslim marauders, and seek safety of life and honour in the Punjab.

At a place called Daddar in Hazara District, on 11.12.1946, 40 Hindu and Sikh evacuees from the surrounding area were waylaid by Muslims; 10 of them were killed and the rest were seriously wounded. All were deprived of their belongings.

By the end of December, in Hazara it became a general uprising against Hindus and Sikhs, who were killed and robbed, and their houses burnt and sacred places desecrated. This ‘holy’ war was carried into the village of Mohri, Dival, Akhroota, Pipal, Jaba, Gohra, Phulgara, Dhanak, Muhari, Karchhan, Malach, Dakhali Sair, Bafa, Sihalian, Samadhra, Jabori, Sankiari, Balakot and Bhata. In all these and other places Hindus and Sikhs were killed, their houses looted and burnt down, Gurdwaras and/or Hindu temples desecrated, Hindu and Sikh evacuees from places of danger waylaid and attacked and the entire Hindu and Sikh population forced to seek refuge in the Punjab. As, however, the numbers involved were not very large, and moreover, neither the Frontier Congress Government nor the Congress-Panthic-Unionist Coalition Government of the Punjab wanted to excite the Hindus and Sikhs of the Punjab, this serious campaign of extermination against the Hindu and Sikh minorities was given the minimum of publicity, and the general public never had a notion of the serious magnitude or import of what was happening, or that another Noakhali was being enacted at the other extreme of India. The features of Noakhali, or for the matter of that, of all Muslim attacks on minorities, were repeated here - mass murder, looting, burning, desecration, collusion between the police and officials and the marauders, with the Muslim League working as the guiding hand in pursuance of its Direct Action Programme, behind what was happening.

In some of these places wholesale massacre of the minorities occurred. In Bhata 116 Sikhs were burnt alive, and several shot dead. In Malachh 115 Hindus and Sikhs were killed.

As has been said above, the general public in the Punjab had no notion of the real scale of what was happening in Hazara. Why at this time the Muslim League did not try to stir up trouble in the Punjab, had a very good reason behind it from the Muslim League point of view. While in the Frontier Province, the League could count on the 92 per cent. majority of Muslim population and the comparative ignorance and fanaticism of the local Muslim population, along with the bait of loot which would draw tribesmen from the neighbouring hill-tracts; in the Punjab the Hindu and Sikh minority was as strong as 44% and so could be expected to give back to the attackers as good as they got, and in certain districts to completely rout and smash them. Moreover, the Coalition Government, at that time in power in the Punjab, although perched on a very shaky eminence, yet it knew that its very existence depended upon its maintaining communal peace with all the resources in its power. Once communal trouble broke out, the coalition would break down, with altogether unforeseenable consequences for the province. So, they maintained peace with the last ounce of their energy. When large-scale trouble broke out in Calcutta on the Direct Action Day, the Punjab maintained peace - though a tense and precarious peace. On August 29, 1946, which was Id, trouble was widely expected in the Punjab. Feverish apprehensions were entertained of another Calcutta being enacted in Lahore; and the other Punjab towns too were awaiting the day with anxiety. But so strict was the vigilance of the Punjab Coalition Government, and so well did the Muslim police and officials understand that their Government meant business when it instructed them to maintain peace at all costs, that not a single incident was allowed to occur anywhere. It was well-known that arms and incendiaries had been collected by the Muslims in the Punjab, as in other provinces, by August. 1946 and only the proverbial button awaited to be pressed for horrors such as were later witnessed in Calcutta to be enacted. But August passed off peacefully and indeed, as long as the Coalition was in power, disaster was staved off in the Punjab. But mass-attack on the minorities occurred with a vengeance as soon as the Coalition resigned on March 2, 1947.

The Punjab continued to be tense all through the latter part of 1946 and early 1947. The Muslim League wanted to capture power in the Province, but its intentions were now known to be so fascist, so totalitarian, and its programme and policy so completely to be the enslavement, nay elimination of minorities, that the League Party in the Punjab Assembly although the largest single party in the House, could not get even a single Hindu or Sikh M. L. A. to give it support.

Not finding it possible by any professions of friendship or any assurances to create confidence among the minorities, the League tried its method of Direct Action in the Punjab to capture power and to subjugate the minorities.

The Muslim League was on the look-out for an opportunity to wage their war on the Coalition Government in the Punjab, which had so far succeeded in maintaining peace - albeit a kind of ‘armed truce’ - in the Province. The League gave all the provocation it could to the Coalition Government, and to the Hindu and Sikh minorities. The Muslim National Guards recruitment proceeded with very increased speed during all the months after the Direct Action Resolution of the Muslim League was passed. So great and ubiquitous was the organisation of the League Private Army, the Muslim National Guards, that every Muslim mohalla, every small town, sometimes every considerable village, had its own National Guard contingent and its commander, called Salar. One would be surprised to find the organization existing very often in unlikely and out-of-the-way places. The Guard collected arms and petrol - almost everywhere. They received secret instructions from head-quarters, and had a quasi-military, fascist kind of organization, with the rule of implicit obedience to the orders of the leader. An idea of the numbers and of the formidable threat which the Muslim National Guard constituted to the peace of the Punjab, can be formed from the fact that in the city of Amritsar alone the National Guard razakars (volunteers) numbered 9,000, while in Lahore this number was estimated to be in the neighbourhood of 10,000.

Since the Muslim National Guard were assuming such alarming proportions the Coalition Government of the Punjab, on January 24, 1946 declared the Muslim National Guards and along with it, the Rashtriya Swyam Sewak Sangh, a private Hindu army, unlawful associations. While this was done, the Punjab Government in a communique made it clear that no Government could tolerate the existence of private armies, which constituted a grave menace to the existence of the State.

Declaring unlawful the Muslim National Guard perturbed the League leaders a good deal. It meant the weakening of the League’s power of coercion of minorities. Mr. Ghazanfar Ali, later a member of the Interim Government on behalf of the League, called this banning “an attempt to ban an important part of the activities of the Muslim League itself.”

Search of the Muslim League office in Lahore was resisted. Those resisting were arrested and they included Khan Iftikhar Husain of Mamdot, President of the Punjab Provincial Muslim League, and later Premier of West Punjab. Some more of the important League leaders of the Punjab were arrested. The search of the Muslim League office revealed 1,000 helmets and badges with signs of swords, pistol and dagger.

The Muslim League began defiance of the law by taking out processions and holding meetings all over the Province, in contravention of the Safety Ordinance, which had prohibited all meetings and processions.

Although soon after arrest the League leaders were released and the Muslim League meeting in Lahore in defiance of the Safety Ordinance was allowed to be held, yet the League decided to continue the agitation it had launched against the Punjab Government.

The League agitation continued for 34 days - a period during which the tempo of the movement became more and more violent, and from being ostensibly a movement for fighting the attack on the civil liberties of the population in the form of the Safety Ordinance, it became openly a. movement for the conquest of the Hindus and Sikhs of the Punjab. The speeches made on the day the movement was launched left no doubt as to what its real aim was. On January 27, 1947 Mian Iftikharuddin said at a Lahore public meeting of Muslims:

“We have come here to tell you that if you can carry on the fight with the same determination and discipline as had been displayed during the past three days, not only will you have achieved victory in the Punjab, but you will also have reached nearer to your goal of Pakistan.”

That Pakistan was to be brought nearer by this agitation, and that Pakistan was the device for enslaving the Hindus and Sikhs to the Muslims, were the true premises for determining the character of the League agitation. That the Muslim League was in alliance with the overwhelmingly large Muslim police of the Punjab and the Muslim officials, is beyond a doubt. In meeting this agitation there was none of that vigour with which the Congress movements in India have been sought to be crushed by the British Government - nor was there the discipline inculcated among Congress workers by the Congress creed and by Mahatma Gandhi and his personality. The agitation was allowed to drift on. Few arrests were made; the burden of the Government communiques in those days in describing the movement was “No arrests were made.” Those that were made, were described as “temporary”, that is, the arrested persons were released before the communique was out The League agitators, on the other hand, in this first movement which was not directly a riot had little quarrel with the police, which was sympathetic towards it.

Some well-meaning people among the non-Muslims in the Punjab were deceived as to the real character of this Muslim League agitation. Hopes were entertained that now at long last the Muslim League too, like the Congress, had adopted the way of Civil Disobedience, and that it was fighting a battle in the way of peaceful agitation for the vindication of certain civic rights, such as freedom of association, etc. That this estimate of the real character of the movement was a mistake, was soon made evident by certain ugly incidents, which must have shocked those who thought that the proverbial leopard of the Muslim League had changed his spots. The League which had to its credit several years’ campaign of hate, of the two-nation theory, of its Direct Action, Calcutta, Noakhali and the N.-W. F. P. attacks on the minorities, could not transform its character formed all through its above mentioned activities over years. In the Punjab Agitation the usual slogans raised by the League crowds were: ‘Lar ke lenge Pakistan’; ‘Khun se lenge Pakistan’; ‘Dena hoga Pakistan’; ‘Leke rahenge Pakistan’ etc. All these slogans, as the Sikh leaders rightly pointed out, were really attacks directed against the Hindu and Sikh minorities, who to a man were opposed to the establishment of the Islamic State of Pakistan, and to enslave whom to the rule of the Muslim-majority this state was sought to be established. The Sikh leaders felt deeply perturbed over the growing strength of the League Agitation, and over the week - kneed and pusillanimous attitude with which the Punjab Government was dealing with this movement of extremely dangerous potentialities. That the movement was extremely dangerous for the peace and well-being of the Province, was demonstrated within about only a week after its termination, in the shape of the terrible and unprecedently widespread March, 1947 attacks on the Hindus and Sikhs of the Punjab. Well in the middle of February, 1947, when the movement was about three weeks old, attacks had begun to take place on Hindus and Sikhs - not widespread, but nevertheless symptomatic of the true character of the movement, and of what it was going to become, if allowed to continue a little time longer. What the Chief Secretary of the Punjab Government, who incidentally was a Muslim, and is occupying at present a position of great responsibility under the West Punjab Government in Pakistan, says on this agitation, is highly illuminating:

“The agitation which the Muslim League commenced on the 24th of January has continued until the time of drafting this report. It has affected all districts in the province in varying degrees and in places there have been situations of some seriousness. The campaign is one of deliberate disobedience and defiance of law conducted with a definite undemocratic political motive.

“So far there has been no sign that the Muslim leaders at large or in jail have been persuaded to a sense of responsibility or to reasonableness. In the circumstances the early restoration of the Province to its normal life cannot confidently be expected.

“The crime situation continues to be unsatisfactory with criminals taking advantage of police preoccupation in dealing with disturbances created by politics. The law and order field may be further and adversely affected if the Muslim League puts certain of its threats into action. These include interference with communications and a campaign of non-payment of taxes. So far as taxes go, there has been no translation of the threat into action, but there has been interference in the running of trains advocated and practised by the more extreme among the League’s adherents. Persons taken in the commission of offences of this kind are being dealt with under Ordinance XXVIII of 1946 in order that sentences awarded may have a deterrent effect.”

“The Muslim League agitation continued in the Punjab until the 26th of February when it was called off as the result of a settlement reached between the Punjab Government and the President of the Provincial Muslim League. The settlement was timely, for in its concluding days the agitation took a decided turn for the worse and acts of individual and mass violence were committed in several districts. In three places, Amritsar, Jullundur and Ambala, the police were forced to resort to firing to control unruly, violent crowds and there were casualties on both sides, some of them of a serious kind.

“Since their release from jail, the League leaders have been active and the League’s committee of Action has met.

“A decision has been taken to observe the 2nd of March, as Victory day.

“Many were shocked by the vulgarity of the League’s tactics and behaviour, the agitation undoubtedly attracted the sympathy of most Muslims who are not nationalist in their political opinions.

“Among Hindus and Sikhs resentment at the agitation is growing and, particularly in the case of the latter in an ominous degree. On the 12th of February in the second statement he has issued against the agitation since it started, Master Tara Singh declared that it was communal in its essentials and has as its purpose the domination of the Punjab by Muslims. He called on the Sikhs to prepare themselves to face the Muslim League onslaught and towards this and to reorganize the Akal Fauj.

“Of the three communities the Sikhs are undoubtedly the most perturbed at the shape political events are taking. Their apprehensions that the Centre will not be able to withstand the demand for Pakistan and the Muslim League agitation have drawn them further from the League, making any understanding between the two now unlikely and have driven them more to the thought of a separate Sikh-Hindu State made up of the Punjab districts where Muslims are in a minority and the Sikh States.”

Sikh leaders publicly protested against the pro-Pakistan and provocative slogans of the Muslim League, such as ‘Khun se lenge Pakistan’, ‘Dena hoga Pakistan’ and ‘Leke rahenge Pakistan’; etc. On 15.2.1947 and 21.2.47, on which tension among the communities was mounting high, the Muslim League was adopting a bullying, menacing and hooligan character, encouraged no doubt by the mild and almost indulgent attitude towards it. The police merely watched Muslim mobs of ten thousand or more going about, threatening to disturb the inter-communal atmosphere with their provocative movement. Even when the Muslim crowds were very violent as they were first at Amritsar and later at Lahore - invading courts and destroying files, no police action followed. That this same police force could deal sternly and revengefully with the non-Muslim movements, even though the latter might be perfectly non-violent in character, was demonstrated by the repeated police firing on Hindu and Sikh students on the 3rd of March in Lahore, when these students only took out a procession to demonstrate their protest against the impending formation of a Muslim League ministry in the Punjab.

That the Muslim League agitation grew more and more violent after the middle of February, way shown by a number of incidents. There were several train hold-ups at Amritsar, at Ludhiana, Gujranwala and other places. Lawlessness was on the increase, and the police took no more than the minimum, and in this case, wholly insufficient steps to meet the situation. On the 14th February, faces of non-Muslim tonga drivers were blackened by Muslims at Amritsar, as they refused to join a hartal organized by the Muslims, including Muslim tonga drivers, against the arrests of Muslim League leaders. That the non-Muslim tonga drivers were perfectly justified in refusing to make common cause with the Muslims in a matter which concerned Muslims alone and not tonga-drivers as such, did not prevent their disgrace at the hands of these Muslims tonga-drivers. A similar incident on the same day occurred at Lahore. This further enraged the Sikhs and made them ponder over the rising tide of Muslim arrogance and bullying tactics being used against Hindus and Sikhs.

That the League agitation was only the first beginning of the organized Muslim attempt to attack and subjugate, in the interest of establishing Pakistan, the Hindu and Sikh minorities of the Punjab (and not long after of the N.-W. F. P.) is amply proved by the following news-items and commentary, extracted from The Civil & Military Gazette of Lahore, a paper by no means anti-Muslim in its general policy.

In its editorial of February 12, 1947 when the League agitation had run for near upon three weeks, and evidence of its violent character had already shown itself prominently, the Civil made this very clear and penetrating analysis of the character and dangerous potentialities of the Muslim League agitation.

“Its (the League’s) agitation…… is dangerous…… to the peace of the province and the constitutional security of Government in the Punjab as far as can be seen - into the future. Tempers are daily wearing thinner…… and time is not far off when bullets may replace tear-gas bombs. (The League leaders) would do well now to pause and take stock of the position, examining the ominous trends of the policy to which they are committed and weighing possible gains against certain and apparently inescapable losses.

“The attitude of the Punjab Government will, of course, be conditioned by the decision of the Provincial Muslim League, but it must face up to the problems created by a decision to continue the agitation and prepare plans for implementation in that event. The present policy of drift (of the Government) is playing into the hands of the agitators and it is preparing the way for goondaism ... ”

“An attempt to wreck the Frontier Mail near Rawalpindi was made by Muslim League saboteurs on Monday (i. e. 17.2.47). Instances are multiplying of the demonstrators planting the League flag on railway engines and damaging railway property.” (C. &. M. Gazette-18.2.1947)

“On Friday evening (i. e. 14.2.1947) Sikhs and Hindus held a meeting (at Amritsar) in view of the violent conduct of the Muslim League processions earlier in the day. Considerable indignation was expressed at the conduct of Muslim Leaguers in blackening the faces of two Sikh and one Hindu tonga-drivers that day who refused to participate in the day’s hartal.

“There were many largely attended and rowdy processions in Sialkot City but no arrests were made. At Gujranwala there are definite signs of rowdyism, and processions for the last two or three days have not been well-behaved .” (C. & M. Gazette - 18.2.1947).

In Amritsar, Sialkot, Ludhiana, Bhalwal, Gujranwala, Gujrat and other places violent activities were indulged in by the League processions on 18.2.1947.

In all these places tear-gas and lathis had to be used by the police against the processionists.

The 24th February, which was one month from the launching of the agitation, was a very violent day indeed, and it incidentally revealed the League agitation in its true colours, as the forerunner of the March, 1947 war on the Hindu and Sikh minorities. The Civil & Military Gazette report of the day is as under:-

“The Muslim League agitation assumed dangerous proportions in Amritsar where the police had to open fire on several occasions on Monday (i. e. 24.2.1947).

“A Sikh constable was beaten to death by a wild mob in the civil lines, the Additional District Magistrate was brutally assaulted…… and a murderous attack was made on a Sub-inspector by a demonstrator who was killed by police fire. . . .” C. & M. Gazette-25.2.1947)

Firing had to be resorted to by the Police on this day in Rawalpindi. The Lahore Courts were raided and files tempered with. At Kasur there was violence too.

Regarding the murder of the Sikh police constable at Amritsar, certain details of it are very revealing. The Muslim mob asked the police to withdraw, which the police did. This helpless Sikh constable was beseiged by the Muslim mob, and stoned to death in a most brutal manner. The Muslim members of the police party, among whom there were only a few solitary non-Muslims, did nothing to rescue their comrade from the clutches of the murderous mob. The lesson of it was clear - that a Sikh had been murdered, solely because out of a party of policemen he was the only Sikh. In Congress agitations the police used to be attacked, seldom physically though, as the Police, as the instrument of foreign rule, and no discrimination was made between its Hindu, Muslim, Sikh or Christian personnel as such. But here was a case of such discrimination.

This incident amply proved that Sikhs in particular, and Hindus and Sikhs in general, were in for trouble at the hands of Muslims. This most dangerous character of the situation drew two statements on February 26, 1946 from important Sikh sources - one from the Assembly Panthic Party and the other from Master Tara Singh. The Panthic Assembly Party, at which Master Tara Singh was present by special invitation, appealed to the Muslim League to “Stop these unlawful activities, which are bound to have serious repercussions if continued any further” and asked the Punjab Government to ‘adopt a firm attitude and take speedy action in dealing with this menace to the peace of the Province.’

Master Tara Singh in a separate statement pointed out that the Muslim League agitation was meant to overawe the Sikhs into agreeing to Pakistan.

That this agitation was meant as part of the Muslim League campaign for the establishment of Pakistan was further made clear by the arrogant speeches made by the Muslim Leaguers on the occasion of the League “Victory Day” on March 2, 1947 to mark the release of the Muslim League leaders from jail as a result of negotiations in which the Muslim League achieved nothing, except the release of the imprisoned Muslim Leaguers. Bashir Ahmed Akhgar, speaking at Amritsar, said that this agitation was only the stepping-stone of the struggle which the Muslims would have to launch for the achievement of Pakistan.

On the 4th March, 1947 a Muslim Sub-Inspector of Police appeared before Hindu and Sikh students and other demonstrators at Lahore, who had gathered to express their opposition to the impending formation of a League Ministry in the Punjab, and told them to disperse, as their agitation was futile and Pakistan in any case must be established. This was the kind of mentality of the Muslim-dominated police force of the Punjab, upon whom had fallen the responsibility of dealing with the attack of the Muslim population on the Hindu and Sikh population of the Punjab in March, 1947.

Several factors at this time entered into the situation and made it critical and brought matters to a head in the Punjab very fast. The British Prime Minister, on the 20th February, 1947 made an authoritative statement of policy on behalf of the British Government in which he said:

“His Majesty’s Government wish to make it clear that it is their definite intention to take necessary steps to effect the transfer of power to responsible Indian hands by a date not later than June, 1948.

“ ... His Majesty’s Government will have to consider to whom the powers of the Central Government in British India should be handed over on due date, whether as a whole to some form of Central Government for British India or in some areas to the existing Provincial Governments or in such other way as may seem most reasonable and in the best interests of the Indian people”.

This statement brought the prospect of power very near the imagination of the Muslim League leaders who were now anxious more than ever to wrest power in the Punjab, so that by the time the transfer of power occurred, in June, 1948 or earlier, the Muslim League should be already firmly in the saddle in the Punjab, to receive power from the British Government and to consolidate the Western bloc of Pakistan. Come what may, thought the League leaders, none but a League ministry must function in the Punjab from now on. And it was to create such a situation that the Muslim League intensified its activity many times over, and when it failed to form a ministry, it let loose the horror and terror of the March, 1947 and subsequent riots over the Punjab.

Sir Khizar Hyat Khan, Premier in the Punjab Coalition Ministry, although his ministry had survived the League agitation, had yet received such a drubbing at the hands of the Muslim League as must have made his heart sick. The foulest and filthiest abuse was uttered daily in all places where the League agitation was conducted, for Sir Khizar and his Muslim colleagues, while the non-Muslim ministers came in for severe castigation minus the abuse. Probably Sir Khizar’s relations and others close to him felt like advising him to get out of this situation in which he had fallen foul of the majority of his coreligionists. The statement of His Majesty’s Government quoted above must have made him to ponder and to think of relinquishing office. So, on the 2nd March, 1947 Sir Khizar Hyat Khan resigned office, and his ministry naturally came to an end. Sir Khizar took this step, as he said he thought it incumbent to leave the field clear for the Muslim League to come to some arrangement with the other parties. On the next day, that is the 3rd March, 1947 the Governor of the Punjab invited the leaders of the Muslim League Assembly Party to form a ministry. But by that date a strong wave of protest against and opposition to the formation to a Muslim League Ministry, committed to the division of India and the establishment of Pakistan in the Punjab, arose among Hindus and Sikhs. The Hindu and Sikh students of Lahore took out a big procession to demonstrate their resolve not to tolerate a Muslim League Ministry. This perfectly non-violent procession was fired on by the Muslim Police, which had stood hooliganism and law-breaking from Muslim mobs for over a month in the Province. Meetings, demonstrations and processions of Hindus and Sikhs continued in Lahore and Amritsar and some other towns. The situation was growing serious. Opposition to the Muslim League was rising, with the result that in its efforts at Ministry-making, the Muslim League Assembly party did not get a single Hindu or Sikh supporter. The Governor found that he could not allow a purely Muslim League ministry, without any support whatever from Hindus and Sikhs, to be formed in the Punjab. The Muslim League having lost the confidence of Hindus and Sikhs due to its past conduct of several years and its creed of hate and violence, got no support from them. The Governor suspended the constitution, and the Punjab from March 5, 1947 was to be governed directly by the Governor under section 93 of the Government of India Act.

The report of the Chief Secretary of the Punjab Government, a Muslim, who has been quoted before, is highly significant as descriptive of the Muslim League attitude during this fateful period in the history of the Punjab, as being the prime cause of the occurrence of the Riots, from March 5 onwards. According to the Chief Secretary’s report:

“One of the most remarkable features of the situation has been the speed with which events moved. On the 2nd of March, following the settlement with Government, the Muslim League celebrated a “Victory Day”. No communal clash accompanied the observances but they afforded evidence of Muslim arrogance and intensified the fear and hatred of other communities, and increased their determination not to be subjected to an unwanted domination. On the same day the Premier announced the resignation of the Coalition Ministry in a statement to the effect that he was taking the step because he felt His Majesty’s Government’s announcement of the 20th February, made it incumbent to leave the field clear for the Muslim League to come to some arrangement with the other parties. On the 3rd, His Excellency the Governor invited the leader of the Muslim League Party to form a Government. On the 4th March disorder commenced. On the 5th March, in the presence of the Muslim League’s failure to form a Government, proclamation was issued under Section 93 of the Government of India Act transferring all responsibilities to the Governor.

“On the afternoon of the same day, and inevitably, communal rioting broke out accompanied by cases of stabbing and arson. By the 6th of March, both Amritsar and Multan were gravely affected and much damage had been caused to life and property. Since that date, with news of grave events radiating from Lahore, there has been bloodshed and burning in many districts, and rural areas have paid the price levied by insensate fury as well as towns. Many of the gravest incidents have taken place in the districts which form the Rawalpindi Division where Muslims are in the majority. In the Rawalpindi and Attock districts in particular there is every reason to think that casualties have been heavy. Up to the 15th March the known victims of internecine strife numbered 1,036 killed and 1,110 injured. The figures in both categories are almost certain to be very much greater when there has been more accurate counting after the madness has passed.”

According to the Chief Secretary:

“The prospect is not improved by the brutality of some of the acts committed by the majority community (Muslims) in the areas most effected. When details of these acts become known as inevitably they will, the danger of retaliation will arise in a degree fraught with much danger,”

On piecing together all the factors present in the Punjab situation in early March, 1947, we find:

(a) The Muslim League agitation had as its aim the over-throw of the Coalition ministry, and clearing the way for the achievement of Pakistan,

(b) H. M. G. Statement of February 20, 1947 declaring that power would be transferred in India in default of one Central Government, in some areas to the existing Provincial Governments, made it imperative for the League to capture power and to establish its own Government in the Punjab at all costs, so that such a Government should be able to receive power independently of a Central Government of India;

(c) The “Victory Day” of March 2, 1947 was used by the League for marking provocative speeches, and whipping up the passions of the Muslim masses against all who might oppose Pakistan;

(d) Not being able to get the cooperation of a single Hindu or Sikh inside Provincial Assembly, the Muslim League decided upon capturing power by waging a war on the minorities in the Punjab;

(e) For this purpose the Riots of March, 1947 were started, which occurred simultaneously in Lahore, Amritsar, Jullundur, Multan, Rawalpindi, Campbellpur and other Districts, the aggressors in all places being Muslims;

(f) These riots were no ordinary riots, but were a war of subjugation and conquest in which the Muslim people, the Muslim police and Muslim officials worked in perfect unison, and brought widespread death, destruction and uprooting to Hindus and Sikhs in a dozen districts, killing many thousands and uprooting about a million, before the month was out.

So, from the 5th March, 1947 onwards the constitutional game was up, and for the Hindus and Sikhs it became a struggle for sheer life against a fierce and well-planned Muslim onslaught-well-planned in that the Muslim League had a fighting corps (the Muslim League National Guard), ample stores of weapons, both sharp-edged and fire-arms, and a plan of attacks in which with police and official help the Muslims were to be encouraged and covered against risk, while Hindu and Sikh retaliation, if it ever were planned, was to be stifled.

Left to themselves, Hindus and Sikhs, although they reeled under the first unexpected blow in the first and second weeks of March, yet they would have rallied and retaliated, for the Sikh has never taken beating for long. But the Sikhs and Hindus were helpless against police and official backing of the Muslims and for the moment could at best defend themselves in a place like Amritsar where they were not heavily outnumbered by Muslims. In other places, where they were outnumbered, the Muslims rained destruction on them-month after month. Such retaliation as came, and as has been hinted at by Chief Secretary Akhtar Hussain in his report quoted above, came towards August, when with the nearness of partition the stranglehold of Muslim police and officials began to loosen on the Eastern districts. But just then this stranglehold was complete from Lahore westwards, and from there it became total mass murder and driving out of Hindus and Sikhs, with looting and abduction on a scale horrible to contemplate. The following pages tell in a more detailed manner the story of which the outline has been given above.

 
 ^ contents ^ 

As has been told above, there was a complete concert between the Muslim League and the Muslim masses which followed its programme and policy on the one hand, and Muslim officials and police on the other. The British bureaucracy which still held supreme power, was perhaps inclined to favour the Muslim League - not as such, but as the one force in the country which could be relied upon to pursue a policy of dissension and strife, and thus create in the country such a mood as would make a politically united India, at least a politically united Punjab, impossible So in this background came the fruition and consummation of the Muslim League plan to dominate the Punjab, to form in this Province its ministry, which with the consent of Hindus and Sikhs could not be done, but which might be established after beating them down. Only this beating had to be swift, continual and thorough. Without a ministry of its own in the Punjab, the Muslim League would not be able to receive power from the British Government in June, 1948, the target date by which according to the February, 20 statement of H. M. G. power must be transferred to Indian hands. Without a Muslim League Government in the Punjab, Pakistan would remain not only lopsided, but might even topple altogether as a practical scheme. This was the situation in which the Muslim League attack on the Punjab minorities was inevitably launched.

Before making a detailed study of the Muslim attack in early March, 1947 a few significant figures must be noted here, which will show at a glance the strategically well-planned nature of the Muslim offensive and the total helplessness of the Hindus and Sikhs in the face of the overwhelming odds they were called upon to contend against:

(a) The proportion of the Muslim and non-Muslim Police force in the Punjab uptil August, 1947 was as follows:-

The total number of Police constables in the Punjab was shown as being 24,095, out of whom 17,848 were Muslims, 6167 Hindus and Sikhs combined and 80 Europeans and Anglo-Indians. This makes a percentage of 74 for she Muslim police. This overwhelming majority for the Muslim police was not justified on the basis of population figures, which were 56% Muslim and 440/, non-Muslims. For long years non-Muslims, particularly Hindus and Sikhs, had clamoured for greater recruitment of Hindus and Sikhs to the police, and Hindu and Sikh public bodies came forward quite often to offer good, acceptable Hindu and Sikh young men for the force, but the old proportions were allowed to stand, and even good Hindu and Sikh youths were very often rejected while Muslims of very much inferior physique were taken. The result of all this was that the Punjab Police was for all practical purposes Muslim. The Hindu and Sikh members of the force, being in a very small minority, and kept under by intrigue and the concerted plan of the Muslim majority, in the force itself, and of the Minister-incharge of Police, who since the introduction of Provincial Autonomy in 1937 had invariably been a Muslim, lost all confidence in themselves, and were helpless in doing their duty to protect the Hindu and Sikh minorities against aggression when the Muslim League attack in concert with the Muslim Police began in March, 1947.

(b) The proportion of Hindu and Sikh population in the Districts in which the attacks on them were made:-

The above districts are those in which attacks on Hindus and Sikhs occurred in a serious form in the pre-partition days, i. e., from March, 1947 to August, 1947. In other districts of the present province of West Punjab (Pakistan) and in these above-mentioned districts, immediately before and after August, 1947 the situation became one of mass killing of Hindus and Sikhs and of abduction of their women-folk, looting of their property and burning of alien, houses.

Lahore town, in which most part of the attacks on Hindus and Sikhs took place in this pre-partition period, had a large majority of Muslim population, though it had large non-Muslim property, industry, educational and cultural effort centred in it.

The district of Amritsar, in which Hindus and Sikhs received, outside Western Punjab, the severest punishment at Muslim hands in the pre-partition period, had a slight non-Muslim majority in population. While the Muslim population of the district was 46.52%, the Hindus and Sikhs made up 51.46%. But the city of Amritsar itself was, in spite of its intimate Sikh associations, overwhelmingly Muslim in population, which was situated mostly quite deep along the fringe of the city on all four sides. Its nearness to Lahore and the particularly close concert between it and the local Muslim police and officials made it very formidable indeed in the months from March to July, 1947.

Figures for Hazara district in the N.W. F. P. have already been given in an earlier chapter. The other districts of the Frontier Province in which large-scale attacks on Hindus and Sikhs occurred are these, with their relative Muslim and non-Muslim percentage in population shown:

These districts were worse situated from the point of view of the harassed and beseiged Hindu and Sikh populations, even than the districts of the Rawalpindi Division in the Punjab. These Districts backed on the tribal Afghan territory, into which the Hindu and Sikh women and others could be easily kidnapped. Flight was impossible for these unfortunate people either, for they were separated from the Hindu-Sikh areas of the Punjab by a very long belt of Muslim areas, through which no non-Muslim could travel with safety in those terrible months of anarchy in the Punjab.

Although the very first attacks occurred in Lahore and Amritsar on the 4th and 5th of March, 1947, yet in the latter of these cities the Hindus and Sikhs were numerically not overwhelmed by the Muslims. In Amritsar except in the initial stages Hindus and Sikhs put up a fight for safety of life and property, although this fight as it turned out, was unequal, with the Muslim police and officials going all-out to back up the Muslim assailants. In Lahore, there were 433,170 Muslims against 177,212 Hindus and only 34,021 Sikhs. But the worst carriage and destruction came in the Western districts - Multan, Rawalpindi, Campbellpur, Jhelum and Sargodha where right from the 5th March the League-led Muslim mobs fell with determination and full preparations on the helpless Hindus and Sikhs scattered in the villages, at the rate usually of a few Hindu and/or Sikh homes in the midst of a large Muslim population. That the Muslim League “Action” against Hindus and Sikhs was planned, is shown by several undeniable factors, the logic of which is unescapable. These are:

(a) These attacks began in the several districts mentioned above, as well as in Lahore and Amritsar, at almost the same time, as if the League forces were waiting only for a signal, for a word of command or a psychological moment to begin their work of bringing the Punjab under the heel of a Muslim League government.

(b) These attacks were open, unchecked and of the nature of a thorough extermination - the methods being everywhere uniform, such as stabbing, arson and the humiliations inflicted in forcibly converting the men and dishonouring the women of the minorities.

(c) These attacks all occurred in the heavy Muslim-majority districts, and in the cities of Lahore, Amritsar, Ludhiana and Jullundur with their large Muslim populations. This was in the initial stages. In the somewhat later stages, such as a month after the beginning of these attacks, it was again the districts in which the Muslim majority was slightly smaller, though still very large, such as Gujrat, Gujranwala and Sialkot that these attacks began. No attacks on the part of Hindus and Sikhs on Muslims by way of reprisals or retaliation occurred in the non-Muslim majority districts during, all the months up till August, 1947. Those districts, with the exception only of Gurgaon, in which too the aggressors were the Muslim Meos, remained quiet, and the non-Muslims, perturbed as they deelpy were over what was happening in West Punjab, remained on the whole peaceful.

(d) As a corollary to the above, in the period up till August, 1947 there were about a million Hindu and Sikh refugees from the Western districts of the Punjab, from the North-Western Frontier Province, from Baluchistan and the devastated city of Lahore, besides Amritsar, who had to be looked after in refugee camps by the Punjab Government, by the Sikh States of the Punjab and by bodies like the Hindu Mahasabha and the Shromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee. There were very few Muslim refugees anywhere in this period. Such few as there were, came mainly from Amritsar, where alone up till August, the Hindus and Sikhs had been able to put up anything like a fight for life against Muslim aggression.

(e) The Muslims gave further evidence of plan and preparation in their aggression in respect of the following features of their action: (i) They were well supplied with arms, such as daggers, swords, spears and even fire-arms. (ii) They had bands of stabbers and their auxiliaries, who covered the assailant, ambushed the victim and if necessary disposed of his body. These bands were subsidized by the Muslim League, and in many cases cash payments were made to individual assassins on the number of Hindus and Sikhs bagged. There were also regular patrolling parties in jeeps which went about sniping and picking off any stray Hindu or Sikh (This was a feature mainly of the cities of Lahore and Amritsar). (iii) Petrol was in plentiful supply with the Muslim aggressors everywhere - both for purposes of transport and for quick arson. This must have taken some time to be collected in such huge quantities. (iv) The concert between the Leaguers of a place and their opposites of other places and the Muslim police and authorities everywhere, was remarkable. Till non-Muslim military appeared on the scene, there was no relief at all for Hindus and Sikhs, as the Muslim police never took action against the Muslim aggressors. (v) In towns like Amritsar, where the earliest attacks occurred, even before any Hindu or Sikh was thinking that fighting would take place, the Muslims were fully prepared for the offensive. For example, they had distributed among their own folk all the available sword-blades in Amritsar. On Muslim shops had been written in prominent lettering ‘Muslim Shop’ in Urdu to protect these shops from planned arson And there was other unmistakable evidence of this, which will be mentioned when we came to narrate the incidents connected with Amritsar.

The attack came swiftly and over a vast area in the Rawalpindi Division, in which as has been shown in the table given before, the Muslim population in every district is over 80% and in some is well above 90%. In Rawalpindi town itself it appears the Hindu and Sikhs were well-organized and well-armed, and when the Muslims attacked them, they lilt back and drove away their assailants with some casualties. This beating taught the Muslims of this town a salutary lesson, and although the Hindus and Sikhs had for long to bear a state of seige, yet they were not murdered and pillaged on the scale on which this occurred in the unprotected and unarmed country-side, where it was general massacre of Hindus and Sikhs, especially of the latter.

On the 5th March, 1947 on hearing of the Ailing on the Hindu and Sikh students of Lahore, the Hindu-Sikh students of Rawalpindi took out a procession protesting against the Muslim attempt at the formation of a communal (Muslim League) Ministry in the Punjab, and the police firing on the non-violent procession of Hindu and Sikh students. This procession was attacked by the Muslim Leaguers. There was a free fight in which the Muslims got the worst of it. Then a huge Muslim mob from the countryside, incited for attack on Hindu and Sikhs by the Pir of Golra, a Muslim religious head and a leader of this area, fell upon the town. But the Hindus and Sikhs fought them from their mohallas in trenches, and the Muslims again lost in this battle. The suburbs of Rawalpindi, however, were burnt and sacked, as resistance in them could not be effective. Nine Hindus and Sikhs were murdered treacherously by Muslims in Lal Kurti Mohalla, after being decoyed into entering the Muslim Zone for peace negotiations. This was not a solitary instance of such murder done by treachery, as similar things occurred in other places too, both in March and in the post partition period.

In the rural areas of Rawalpindi, however, it was a case of mass attack by Muslims, and a general massacre of Hindus and Sikhs. That this description is not an exaggeration or an attempt at painting a lurid picture, is fully borne out by the tables of incidents attached to this booklet in the form of Appendices. The Muslims many hundreds of times made up in the rural areas the set-back they had received in Rawalpindi town itself. Here, on a scale much larger than Noakhali, in an area many times more extensive, and involving a population many times that of Noakhali and Tipperah, the Muslim League, anxious now to convert the Punjab into a Muslim League-governed Province, carried fire and sword into all areas of the Rawalpindi Division. Here was the answer to the query made by a British newspaper about the aims of Jinnah: “Does he want to plunge his country into a religious war?” And the answer most emphatically was, “Yes”. It was to be a religio-political-war, in which the Punjab was to be made safe at all costs for a Muslim League Government, which should receive power, in June, 1948 from the British Government.

The attack in Rawalpindi villages began on the 7th March, 1947, and continued non-stop or weeks together, in village after village, wherever any Hindus and Sikhs were to be found. When one sub-area was rid of its Hindu and Sikh inhabitants then the war on Hindus and Sikhs spread to another area, and so on, till by the end of March, the surviving Hindu and Sikh populations of Rawalpindi, Campbellpur and Jhelum Districts had all been transferred in a destitute state into refugee camps, which were established all over the Punjab, the Sikh states and even the U.P. In the larger towns of this areas there were still Hindus and Sikhs, but they were living in a state of seige, and could not stir out of their homes, much less travel or otherwise move about.

In 128 villages of Rawalpindi district, which were attacked over a period of several days, beginning from March 7, 1947, 7,000 Hindus and Sikhs have been enumerated in reports as killed. All casualties have not in some cases been traced or registered. The number of those wounded has been large too, though when these attacks were made, little mercy was shown by the assailants and they made a very thorough work of finishing of those who fell into their hands. Besides those killed and wounded about 1,000 Hindu and Sikh women were abducted, who were raped and dishonoured in a manner which would shame anyone with the least trace of civilization or religion in him. Women were raped in the presence of their husbands, brothers, fathers and sons. Later they were distributed among the Muslims to be kept as concubines or were forcibly married. A large number were carried into the tribal territory, and became untraceable. In almost all cases houses were burnt and property was looted. Quite often Gurdwaras were burnt down and the Sikh Scripture, Sri Guru Granth Sahib. torn or otherwise desecrated. In most of these villages the method followed by the Muslims to loot and kill the Hindu and Sikh populations was cynically treacherous. A village would be surrounded; messages would be sent to the Hindus and Sikhs to buy off the invaders with so such money. This demand would be complied with. But the invaders would still be there; and one night would open the attack on the small non-Muslim population of the place, and put as many to the sword as could not escape or as could be killed before military help arrived for succour, which, however in those lawless days was not very often.

The invaders marched on to their attacks fearlessly and openly, with drums beating and with a large display of firearms, sometimes even modem automatic weapons. In the newspapers of the period appeared photographs taken of these marching hordes with plenty of rifles carried on the shoulders of the assailants. It is strange, however, that the valiant fliers in these planes were content only with photographing these invaders and did precious little to fire on them, and thus save the lives of the thousands of helpless men, women and children on whom these invaders loosed hell.

Forcible conversion was the other alternative to death for a non-Muslim. The ultimatum was given to the population of a village either to embrace Islam or to face death. Most Hindus and Sikhs preferred death to the shameful surrender of faith, and died, sometimes fighting and at other times with great tortures, at the hands of the sadist religious zealots of the Muslim League. Such women as could not be abducted or dishonoured, generally escaped this shame by immolating themselves. Thoha Khalsa village, of which an account will follow, is a classic example of such sacrifice of life on the part of 93 Sikh women of that place. This, the best known incident of its kind, however, is not the only one. In scores of places, both during the March attacks and the post-partition attacks on Hindus and Sikhs, women immolated themselves to escape dishonour at the hands of the maddened and ferocious lusting Muslim mobs. Those who were forcibly converted were, if they were Sikhs, shaved off and circumcised; the Hindus too were circumcized, even the grown-ups. The women converts were generally given in marriage, if they were unmarried or widows, to Muslims, the Nikah ceremony being performed by some local Maulvi. A large number of such shaven Sikh converts to Islam arrived as refugees in March, 1947 in Amritsar, Patiala and other places, from Rawalpindi and the Frontier Province.

The assailants did not spare even little children. It was naked beastliness performing a devil’s dance. Children would be snatched from the hands of their parents, tossed on spears and swords, and sometimes thrown alive into the fire. Other cruelties equally horrible were perpetrated. Women’s breasts, noses and arms would be lopped off. Sticks and pieces of iron would be thrust into their private parts. Sometimes the bellies of pregnant women were ripped open and the unformed life in the womb thrown out. In some places processions of naked Hindu and Sikh women are also reported to have been taken out by the Muslims mobs.

A report on 23 villages of the Attock district reveals that in these villages a total of 610 Hindus and Sikhs were killed within about ten days from March 7, 1947. In these same villages 1656 Hindu and Sikh houses, including a number of Gurdwaras were burnt and destroyed; 1361 Hindu and Sikh houses were looted of all their property; 1471 Hindus arid Sikhs, both men arid women, were forcibly converted to Islam, and about 100 women and children were abducted.

In the village of Duberan in Rawalpindi district not a single Sikh survived from its total population of one and a half thousands. 70 women were abducted. The burning and looting of this prosperous village, where such carnage took place, can only be imagined.

In the village of Tarlai in Rawalpindi District more than 100 Sikhs were killed, and these included women and children. 15 were forcibly converted to Islam. All houses were looted.

In Chaklala and Rata Amral, Suburbs of Rawalpindi, Sikhs were attacked on March 8, 1947. The residents held out for a day and a night, but finding the odds against them overwhelming, they surrendered. A large number were killed, while others were forcibly converted, and shaved and circumcised in public.

Maddened with the zeal for exterminating the ‘Kafirs’ and making room for the establishment of an Islamic State in Northern India, the League-led Muslim mobs combed hundreds of villages as has already been related above, in the Rawalpindi District.

In Bhagpur the entire Sikh population was wiped out. Women and children were not spared. The Gurdwara was burnt.

In Bewal, 400 Hindus and Sikhs who had taken shelter in a Gurdwara were burnt alive by the Gurdwara being set on fire.

In Thamali Khari, 400 Sikhs were killed, and one Gurdwara and one school building were burnt to cinders. Only 20 out of its population survived.

In the village of Nakrali about two dozen Sikhs were killed and some women immolated themselves to escape dishonour at the hands of the invading Muslims. 40 Sikhs were forcibly converted. The Gurdwara was looted and burnt.

In the village of Mughal 141 Sikhs were killed, and only about a dozen survived out of its population. The Gurdwara was burnt.

In Thoha Khalsa, on March 12, 1947 after long and heroic resistance, 200 Sikhs were killed. The women were asked to embrace Islam, but 93 of them, old and young, decided to escape dishonour by drowning themselves in a well, which they did. The Muslim invaders, aghast at this tragedy, fled from the place. A little later, the military arrived and rescued the survivors. (See a fuller account of this happening in Appendix).

In the village of Sayad, well-known for its educational and philanthropic effort, about 30 Sikhs were killed. Some were forcibly converted. The Gurdwara of the place was burnt.

In the village of Adiala, on March 8, 1947 Muslim mobs collected by beat of drum in broad day-light. The invaders raised a false alarm of a Sikh attack on themselves, and on this pretext, fell to looting the Hindu and Sikh quarters, which they did extensively. Hindus and Sikhs were ferreted out, and were burnt alive, stabbed or shot dead. The number of those killed was above a hundred. 40 were forcibly converted. The Muslim police watched the whole of this carnage going on, and did just nothing about it.

The village of Gorsian in Gujarkhan Tehsil was attacked by a mob of 600, who had been persuaded by the Muslim League Mullas that it is a holy deed to kill Hindus and Sikhs. Several Sikhs were killed in this village, and large-scale looting occurred.

In most cases in these villages a stop was put to the depredations of the Muslim mobs only by the somewhat belated arrival of the military.

In Mandra the attack came on March 9. There was large-scale looting and burning of houses and shops of Hindus and Sikhs. 200 Sikhs were killed; 40 others were missing, and were probably killed while fleeing for life. The Gurdwara and School were burnt.

In Kahuta, on March 8, 60 Sikhs were killed and Sikh and Hindu houses were extensively looted. 500 women were abducted from this village. The Gurdwara was burnt.

Burning of Gurdwaras and Schools, wherever situated appears to have been a settled part of the plan of these predatory mobs, bent upon exterminating and failing that, humiliating Sikhs and Hindus.

In Sukho, where stiff resistance was put up by Sikhs one girls’ school and one Gurdwara were burnt. In Daultala too, very stiff resistance was put up by Sikhs.

In Tainch and Harnali about two dozen Sikhs were killed and brutalities committed in the latter place. About 30 women were abducted from these places and the Gurdwaras were burnt. In Harial about 20 Sikhs were killed and 40 were abducted. The Gurdwara was burnt.

This last is Master Tara Singh’s home place. Masterji’s house were razed to the ground with sadistic vengeance, the site struck with shoes and ploughed over.

In Bamali, on March 8, about 80 Sikhs were killed and more than 105 were abducted. Some Sikhs in this village killed their womenfolk to save them from certain dishonour at the hands of the Muslim invaders. In Banda 20 were killed, including women and children. The Gurdwara here too was burnt.

In Machhian, on March 11, 1947, 200 Sikhs were killed which number was all the males in the village. The women and children were all abducted and were later rescued by the military. The Gurdwara was burnt.

Narali was attacked by a mob of 15,000 on March 12. The Hindus and Sikhs took shelter inside the Gurdwara, from where they put up stiff resistance. Several Hindus and Sikhs were killed, and large scale looting of houses of Hindus and Sikhs occurred.

Murree, a very popular hill station near Rawalpindi was attacked on the 9th March, 1947 and about 150 bunglows belonging to Hindus and Sikhs were looted and then burnt.

At Nara, in the tehsil of Kahuta, Sikh women and children were burnt alive, and the women were tortured in ways most devilishly ingenious and sadistic, which it is not possible for any decent human being to describe.

Such barbarities and widespread murderous attacks occurred simultaneously and on the same scale in districts in the neighbourhood of Rawalpindi, such as Campbellpur, Jhelum and Sargodha. As has been pointed out, all these districts were overwhelmingly Muslim in population. Similar things occurred in the District of Gujrat, bordering on Jhelum.

In the village of Sarkal Kaser in Jhelum district, on and after March 7, 43 Hindus and Sikhs were killed, the survivors were forcibly converted and all Hindu and Sikh houses were burnt. Prominent among other villages burnt and looted, with their Hindu and Sikh inhabitants killed in large numbers or forcibly converted and driven as destitutes from their homes are: Darwal, Narang, Chak Sewak, Bhagwal, Athwal, Tahar, Sahota, Mangwal, Thanel Fatuhi, Rupwal, Ranjha, Dhanogi, Ghugg etc. In the last named, as many as 128 Sikhs were killed and 40 women were abducted. Looting and arson in Hindu-Sikh houses occurred on a large scale. In Jia Bagha 18 Sikhs were killed and 52 were forcibly converted. 66 Sikhs’ houses were burnt.

Dhudial is a large village in Jhelum district, with several gurdwaras, a High School and a bank. It was attacked on March 12. The first attack was resisted by the Sikhs, who were a well organised and substantial community. The second attack, made on the evening of March 13, was much more severe. Large scale arson and looting of Sikh houses occurred. About a dozen Sikhs were killed. Besides three-fourth of the houses in the village, 4 Gurdwaras, the Iran-Hind Bank and the Khalsa High School were burnt. Only the arrival of the military on the scene stopped further destruction. 14 other villages in the neighbourhood of Dhudial were looted with murder and arson. Altogether the Chakwal Tehsil of Jhelum District was over-run.

On March 7, the Frontier Mail was stopped by a Muslim mob at Taxila Railway Station, in Rawalpindi district. Hindu and Sikh passengers, especially the latter, were pulled out and 22 dead bodies were left on the platform.

About the same time, be it noted, another Muslim mob killed Hindu and Sikh passengers in a train while it was held up outside Sharifpura, a suburb of Amritsar. Train hold-ups and killing of Hindu and Sikh passengers was a regular feature of the Muslim League plan of action, as various incidents from March, right up till January, 1948 show.

Cambellpur witnessed atrocities on Hindus and Sikhs, even much worse and on a larger scale. In Rajar, in Tehsil Fatehjung of the Cambellpur district on March 10, the Muslim mob which attacked was armed with rifles. In this attack 300 Sikhs were killed and 3 Gurdwaras were burnt and the Sikh Scripture was desecrated. In this place, 116 Sikhs including women and children there coasted alive inside a Gurdwara. 95 women were abducted and forcibly married to Muslims. All Sikh houses were burnt and looted.

In the villages Pand and Tali Pandi in this District on March 9, Sikh houses were looted and burnt on a large scale. An ultimatum was given to Sikhs to embrace Islam and a large number were forcibly converted. Such of the Sikhs as did not get converted, were brutally done to death, and these included old women and children. Some were also burnt alive. In the village of Jhan, the entire Hindu and Sikh population was wiped out. In Parial, 150 Hindus and Sikhs out of its total population of 160 were burnt alive while they were taking shelter in the Gurdwara. In the villages of Chakri and Dheri, Sikhs fought against overwhelming numbers and many were killed.

In Jand, Kanat and Basal, in Campbellpur district there was large-scale arson and heavy casualties among Hindus and Sikhs. Numerous piteous appeals were sent by the panic-stricken inhabitants to the authorities, but seldom did such appeals help in saving those who made them. Appeals from beleaguered Sikhs bespeaking the last extremity of despair and expressing any hope of preservation only from God, the Preserver of all, were received from these various areas in the office of the Shromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee at Amritsar, which however, was utterly helpless in this situation in which only a strong Government, determined to stop lawlessness ruthlessly could be of any help.

In Cambellpur lawlessness was of an especially serious nature. In the village of Dheri, on March 8, the attack was made by a large mob which advanced with drums beating. A very large number of Sikhs, among whom were women and children, were killed. Such dastardliness which spared neither sex nor age was a regular feature of this Muslim League campaign of extermination of Sikhs and Hindus. Various kinds of brutalities were committed. Hindus and Sikhs who were converted, were forced to swallow beef.

Everywhere in Campbellpur District, there appears to have been no law or Government in these days. The Muslim police abetted and aided the assailants of Hindus and Sikhs. The Muslim mobs everywhere advanced with drums beating and with the Muslim League flag flying. Raping of women, forcible conversions, torturing of men and women were freely indulged in besides burning and looting. Gurdwaras were burnt and desecrated. In Chauntra all Sikhs were forcibly converted, and their womenfolk given over to Muslims. Later a plot was hatched by Muslims to kill all these Hindus and Sikhs, notwithstanding their recent conversion. This plot got somehow known to the intended victims, and they managed to get military aid sometime before they could be done to death.

On March 12, there was a two-hour battle between the Muslim rioters on the one hand and police and military on the other at Jand in Tehsil Pindigheb in Campbellpur district.

On the 12th March, a mob of 10,000 Muslims advanced upon Mianwali. It was only the tact and firmness of the district authorities which averted the fate of the neighbouring areas befalling the Hindus and Sikhs of this town.

On March 11, the town of Tandlianwala, in Lyallpore district and an important trading centre, was attacked by a huge Muslim mob, bent upon loot, arson and the murder of Hindus and Sikhs. Here again it was the courage displayed by Hindus and Sikhs and the firmness of the authorities which saved this town. So widespread over the Punjab was this Muslim League campaign of beating the minorities into submission.

On March 9, in the words of The Civil bind Military Gazette report ‘an armed mob (of Muslims) from rural areas raided Hazro Bazar, 12 miles from Cambellpur and committed arson and loot on a large scale. Six persons were killed and two injured.’ The number of casualties is a gross understatement, as all such estimates given in official and quasi-official reports in those days were later proved to be.

In Khusab (Sargodha district) on March 14, Hindu shops, houses and temples were looted and burned. There was huge loss of property. A similar situation was developing in Sargodha, Bhera and Bhalwal.

A remote village, Chajian in Hazara district, where attacks on Hindus and Sikhs were made in December, 1946 and January 1947, was attacked on March 15. Hindus and Sikhs had to be evacuated to places of safety. In Peshawar Hindus and Sikhs were beleagured. Muzaffargarh, a district in Multan Division, and Montgomery, in Lahore Division, both Muslim majority districts, showed signs in these days of attacks on Hindus and Sikhs brewing.

It was significant that during this period there had been no disturbance on the part of Hindus and Sikhs in any of the non-Muslim majority districts. In Jullundur and Ludhiana towns trouble was made by Muslims, who were in a majority of 70% in each of these towns - Sikhs were in. a majority in the rural areas of Ludhiana District, and were a powerful factor in both rural Jullundur and Ferozepore. Yet no reports were received of any disturbances from these areas.

Rawalpindi Division was ablaze. Its rural Hindu and Sikh population was almost entirely in refugee camps. The biggest of these camps was at Wah, in Campbellpur District, and its population was about 25,000. Another refugee camp, nearly as big, was situated at Kala, in Jhelum District. There were other refugee camps at smaller places. But most of the Hindus and Sikhs of this area had got so much panic-stricken that they preferred to leave this area altogether, and travelled east. The railway trains were full to capacity of destitute Hindu and Sikh refugees from places from Jhelum to Peshawar and other areas. They moved in search of shelter into the Sikh-Hindu majority districts of the Punjab, into the Punjab States, into the Jat States of Bharatpur, Dholpur, into Alwar, into Delhi and the U. P. Some moved even further east. Patiala State alone had, by April, as many as fifty thousand Sikh and Hindu refugees, who had to be fed, housed and clad, whose children had to be educated and who needed being settled in life again after being uprooted. Thousands of widows and orphans created a problem well-nigh insoluble in the face of the suddenness with which it had emerged. Destitutes were roaming every town and village of the Punjab east of Amritsar in search of food and shelter. Pitiable indeed was the condition of these people, who had become victims of an unprecedented kind of disaster. State Governments and private organizations like the Shromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee, the Hindu Mahasabha and the Congress tried to do their best to relieve the distress of these unfortunates, but the task was gigantic. So, barring a microscopic minority of these uprooted people, who had means in the East Punjab, the others remained, practically speaking, destitutes for whom life held little hope. This was the state to which the Muslim League campaign had reduced about at least ten lakhs of enterprising, useful human beings.

But the story of the terrible carnage wrought by the Muslim League campaign of conquest of the minorities is not yet even half told. The known number of casualties in Rawalpindi Division alone is about 7,000 killed. The number of those injured must be considerably higher. Not less than between four and five thousand women were abducted or dishonoured. Houses and shops burnt were thousands, while hundreds of Gurdwaras, Hindu temples and schools were burned or desecrated. Expressing his reaction to what he saw in Rawalpindi Division in these days, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, then Vice-President of the Interim Government of India said that the deeds committed in - the Rawalpindi district would shame even beasts. J. A. Scott, Deputy Inspector-General of Police in the Rawalpindi range, in a statement to the Press, declared:

“It is unbelievable that barbarous acts such as were committed on innocent people in rural areas of the Rawalpindi Division could be possible in the Punjab.”

All these atrocities on Hindus and Sikhs brought no condemnation whatever from the Muslim League leaders. They either kept silent about them, or continued to trot out imaginary atrocities on Muslims. This not only encouraged the Muslim goondas, but gave them the confidence that they could go on safely with the blessings of the League leaders. Defence Leagues of Muslim lawyers and others were set up to rescue from the clutches of the law murderers and beasts in human shape who had perpetrated unspeakable atrocities on innocent and defenceless human beings. The Muslim League Press continued to protest against the so-called police excesses in Founding up Muslim bad characters and criminals, against whom action in fact was inadequate and very much belated. Such action as was taken, came when the military appeared on the scene, and when the Punjab Government decided a little to modify its disastrous policy of making the Punjab Police Department as entirely Muslim preserve.

In Multan attacks of a most destructive nature began on the 5th March, the day on which the Muslim League had decided to unleash its offensive in the Punjab. In violence, speed and the extent of destruction wrought this Multan campaign was in no way less than its Rawalpindi parallel. In both areas Hindus and Sikhs were in a small minority, and the Muslim population very inflammable. In Multan city itself the attack came on the 5th March. A procession of Hindu and Sikh students which was taken out to demonstrate against the formation of a communal Muslim League ministry in the Punjab, was suddenly and brutally attacked by a Muslim mob, with the help of the Police. Many of the students who were in this procession were killed. Then this mob fell upon Hindu and Sikh quarters of the town. A modest estimate places the number of Hindu and Sikhs killed on the first day at 300 and those injured at 500. The Muslim mob was led by a Sayad or Muslim holy man, reputedly a descendant of the Prophet of Islam, on a white charger, ‘inspiring’ the ‘faithful’ with the destruction of ‘Kafirs’. The police were watching all this and moved not their little finger to stop what could be stopped with firm action in a short space of time. So virulent had been the Muslim League propaganda, and such the fury into which the League had whipped the Muslim temper, that the mob did not even spare Hindu and Sikh patients in the T.-B. Hospital. Whole families were done to death, and on the least suspicion of being a non-Muslim a man was killed. Dr. Saifuddin Kitchlew, President of the Punjab Provincial Congress Committee, was on that fateful night a guest in the house of Seth Kalyan Das of Multan. Dr. Kitchlew’s host and his entire family were butchered and the Doctor escaped death only on his proving to his assailants’ satisfaction that he was a Muslim. Hindu shops were looted and burned on a large scale. More than a dozen Sikh and Hindu holy places were also burned and desecrated: Eight factories belonging to Hindus were looted and destroyed by fire. Hindu and Sikh quarters were burned to cinders.

The trouble spread to the countryside of Multan simultaneously. Police lorries, which moved to and fro ostensibly for the relief of sufferers, were really employed to carry Muslim goondas into the countryside. In Shujabad Tehsil of Multan, an attack was made on March 7 on the Hindus of village Aliwala. Large-scale murder of Hindus occurred. Simultaneously Hindus of the villages of Chhajjushah, Mochipura and Bhojewala were also attacked. All this was done in village after village after the Muslims had given assurances of safety on the Koran to Hindus. Hindu women were molested and abducted. Altogether 50 villages in this tehsil were looted with arson, murder and abduction of women. Ears, noses and breasts of women were cut off, and they were raped in the presence of their husbands, brothers, fathers and sons. Such Hindus as approached Muslims with messages of peace were brutally and cynically murdered by these League gangs. Forcible conversions of Hindus occurred on a large scale. It is estimated that Hindus were wiped out in this district over an area of about 500 square miles. Some of the prominent villages in which this destruction occurred are these: Traggar, Matoth, Basti Ahir, Jhakkar, Birkhi, Lashkriwala and Shurewan.

In Lahore, attacks on Hindus and Sikhs started even a day earlier than they did in Multan, that is on the 4th March. Hindu and Sikh students took out a procession, protesting against the attempt to foist a purely communal, Muslim League Ministry on the Punjab. The police and officials had watched the progress of the Muslim League agitation of January-February, 1947 for 34 days. On the whole, as has been pointed out above, this agitation was dealt with in a most ‘soft’ and even inadequate manner by the police, so that from being an agitation unattended by acts of violence, this agitation soon became violent in nature. It was at no time, not even at its inception, non-violent in the sense in which the struggles of the Congress had been non-violent, for foul and vituperative abuse, provocative anti-Hindu-and-Sikh slogans, forcing non-Muslims to join the Muslim agitators, etc. had been resorted to by the League agitators as a matter of course. But all through the police contended themselves with effecting ‘temporary’ arrests of the League leaders, with now and then tear-gassing the League processions and. such other mild measures. Only when the police were themselves attacked, did there occur lathi-beating and firing. All this was because the police and the civil officials had Muslim League sympathies and they were in fact, completely ‘demoralised’. Fair and impartial administration of justice could not be looked for from them. They wanted to create an atmosphere favourable for the establishment of Pakistan in the Punjab, and allowed the Muslim League agitation, which was in fact intended to usher in a Muslim League Ministry, the precursor of Pakistan. to grow more and more irresistible.

The conduct of the police at once changed even on the first day when the Hindus and Sikhs took out a procession in protest against the attempt at foisting Pakistan on the Punjab. The procession of Hindu and Sikh students was perfectly nonviolent. It only raised slogans, but these were in no way against Muslims as such. There was no evidence that this agitation would either grow violent or hold within itself any potentialities detrimental to peace. It was constitutional agitation. Yet the police fired on this procession and several students were killed; many were injured. This was, in the words of the Sikh leader Giani Kartar Singh ‘an attempt to crush, appositive to Pakistan with police aid.’ He further declared, ‘The police did not fire in Lahore for a single day during all the 34 days of Muslim League agitation. It is amazing they could not tolerate our meetings for a single day.’

That in crushing the Hindu-Sikh opposition to the attempted formation of establishing Muslim League raj in the Punjab, the police were acting with excessive zeal and initiative born of their pro-League bias, is shown by the statement issued by the non-Muslim ministers in the Coalition Ministry, which resigned on the 2nd March, and which ceased even to function under protest on the 4th. This statement clearly shows that the police and the authorities were not taking their directions from the Government which was still supposed to function, but were acting as ‘an army of the Muslim League.’ Said the non-Muslim Ministers in their letter of March 4 (evening) in a statement to the Press:

“We had agreed to continue with the Premier in his caretaker Government according to the usual conventions, but the firings and disturbances, which occurred in Lahore, on Thursday¹ resulting in many casualties, have compelled us to tender our resignations to the Premier, since we feel that we are no longer in a position to take complete responsibility for the situation.”

While on the one side the police were trying to crush and cow down the Hindus and Sikhs, and put an end to the opposition to the establishment of Pakistan, on the other, the Muslim population of Lahore, for months and months prepared for an attack on Hindus and Sikhs. This was kept in check so far only by the known stern determination of the Coalition Government to put down rioting with a firm hand. Arms of all kinds, petrol and other incendiaries, helmets and even jeeps had been collected and stored by the Muslims for some time. They were being kept against their need for such opportune time as presented itself on March 4 and after, when an all-out many-pronged assault was to he delivered on Hindus and Sikhs in all such districts in the Punjab, where the League was in a situation favourable for a successful fight. So, Muslim goondas fell upon a Hindu-Sikh procession in Chowk Matti, inside the walled city and adjoining the passage to Mochi Gate, a large and thickly-populated Muslim quarter of the town. Police separated the parties. The town was placed under curfew. The Muslims then took to stabbing and assaulting of stray Hindus and Sikhs and to setting fire to Hindu and Sikh houses and buildings. For this kind of warfare they had long been trained. Stabbing had been one of the items in which Muslims, whether members of the Muslim National Guards or not, had been given special training, as the facsimile of the certificate given earlier will show. For efficient arson they had collected petrol and other incendiaries, which were pumped into a building, and over the sprayed woodwork a piece of burning cotton or other flaming object thrown. In a few minutes the whole place would catch fire, and the entrapped inmates would either be burnt alive, or would be killed by the Muslims who would be waiting outside to pounce upon them as they struggled out of the flames. Before this, in Calcutta and other towns Muslim Leaguers had tried this method of warfare. It left the Hindus and Sikhs aghast, as they were not provided with the means of defence against such a total war of extermination. With the police planning with, aiding and shielding the Muslim League goondas, Hindus and Sikhs felt the situation becoming desperate for them.

Stabbing and waylaying of Hindus and Sikhs became a common occurrence during these days. Hindus and Sikhs going about singly or even in small groups were almost certain to be stabbed to death. In tongas, in buses and even at the Railway Station they were not safe, for Muslims would be lurking with daggers concealed on them, which they could use skilfully and with fatal effect. There is not a doubt that hired Muslim assassins went about Lahore, (and other towns, like Amritsar) charged with the task of murdering Hindus and Sikhs on payment. These rings of assassins were financed by the big ones of the League. Sometimes when such assassins were caught they confessed to being in the pay of the Muslim League leaders. One assailant, arrested some time later on the Mall near the Charing Cross, said to the crowd:

“Please inform Begum Shah Nawaz that I have been arrested and ask her to help me to be released” (Begam Shah Nawaz ko meharbani kar ke ittlah dena ki main griftar ho gaya hun, koshish har ke muihe chhuraen.)

That the existence of such a ring of assassins and their financiers is not a myth or figment of the imagination, but is based on authentic proof, is also supported by disclosure made in the leading article of the Civil and Military Gazette of Lahore; dated June 18, 1947 - three and a half months after the campaign of extermination of Hindu and Sikh minorities had been launched by the Muslim League in the Punjab. (For this see Appendix).

The incidents which occurred in Lahore from March onwards are illustrative of the sort of campaign the Muslim League was carrying on, and the widespread plot of extermination made And put into execution against Hindus and Sikhs.

A Sikh was standing at a milk-shop, buying milk. He was stabbed while standing there and killed. A Hindu was going on a bicycle. He was stopped on the road by a group of Muslims, asked to prove whether he was Hindu or Muslim, and on it being ascertained that he was a Hindu, he was put on the road, and his throat cut with slow torture like an animal slaughtered in the Muslim way.

A Sikh was coming from Court, where he was a clerk. As he passed through a Muslim lane in Mozang, some Muslims fell upon him and finished him on the spot.

Darshan Singh, a Sikh, came out of his house to buy vegetables in Mewa Mandi. Several Muslims fell upon and fatally assaulted him. His dying declaration revealed that Mian Jalaluddin, a Corporation councillor of Lahore, was directing his murderers.

A Hindu tangawala was found murdered in his tonga on Empress Road.

Muslims in jeeps would prowl along Lahore roads, and would snipe at or stab stray Hindus or Sikhs. Such incidents occurred on Ravi Road, near the Canal, on Jail Road and Ferozepore Road.

As the month advanced, the tempo of Muslim attack on Hindus and Sikhs also increased. In March and April these attacks remained confined to stabbings and stray burning of houses. The Muslim Leaguers were feeling their way. After the elimination of minorities had been effected to a great extent in the Rawalpindi Division and in parts of the Multan Division, and a large part of Amritsar had been devastated, it was decided by the Muslim Leaguers to drive Hindus and Sikhs out of Lahore by methods of large-scale murder, loot and arson, for which the police was very willing accomplice. The conduct of the Muslim police and magistracy during this period shows a bold and determined partisanship with the Muslim League rioters in their campaign of crime. This was noticed in the case of M. G. Cheema, a Lahore Magistrate, who abetted and got completed the ruin of a large and populous Hindu-Sikh part of the walled city of Lahore.

In May the attack on Hindus and Sikhs assumed very large proportions. Regular burning, murder and pillage started. On May 18, the Muslims of Mozang, a high Muslim majority area of Lahore attacked the Hindu and Sikh inhabitants. The Muslim mob is said to have been ten thousand and was supplied with rifles which report speaks of as having come from the armoury of the police station of Mozang, through the courtesy of the Muslim Sub-Inspector. The arms thus loaned were to be returned after “use”. Several Hindu and Sikh buildings were set on fire, and moving about in the Mozang area became extremely risky for any Hindu or Sikh.

On the same day, bungalows of Hindus and Sikhs, situated opposite the Sikh National College on Grand Trunk Road, were set on fire. So were the huts of Hindu labourers in this area. One Hindu temple was burned inside the Masti Gali area. Hindu houses were set on fire inside Akbari Mandi and Kucha Patpatian. A non-Muslim was killed near Shahi Mohalla (a thickly populated Muslim zone, close to the Shahi Masjid) and his dead body was set on fire with petrol sprinkled on it.

Muslims of Baghbanpura, a Muslim suburb of Lahore near Shalimar Gardens on the road leading to Amritsar, attacked their neighbouring non-Muslim areas, Singhpura and Bharat Nagar. In the former place, which was inhabited by Sikhs mostly, several mob attacks were made, and Sikhs killed with rifle fire and houses set on fire. In Bharat Nagar several Hindu houses were burned and people venturing out of their houses were stabbed. The Punjab Government was compelled to impose a collective fine of two lakh rupees on Baghbanpura Muslims for their continued aggressive behaviour towards non-Muslims.

The announcement of the Mountbatten Plan on June 3, 1947 which conceded Pakistan and made its coming into existence on August 15, 1947 a dead certainty increased ten-fold the tempo - of attack on non-Muslims in Lahore. The Mountbatten Plan had provided for a boundary commission for the partition of the Punjab and of Bengal, should the non-Muslim legislators of either province demand partition. Considering the temper of the Muslims of these provinces, especially in the course of the year 1946 and 1947, ever since the Direct Action resolution of the Muslim League was passed on July 29, 1946 at Bombay, it was not likely that the non-Muslims of these areas would like either province to go entirely into the proposed theocratic Muslim State of Pakistan. So, a vote for division in either case was expected - as a matter of fact, on the part of the non-Muslim legislators who in this matter fully carried out the wishes of the Hindus and Sikhs of the provinces concerned, it was known to be a foregone conclusion. The Boundary Commissions were appointed to demarcate the boundaries of the two provinces where in the event of a non-Muslim demand for partition, these provinces were to go into Pakistan and India respectively. The two commissions, which however had in Sir Cyril Radcliffe, a common chairman, were required to take into consideration, while fixing the boundaries, population and ‘other factors.’ What these ‘other factors’ were to be, was never precisely defined. It was thought that they would include historic and religious attachments, extraordinary economic interest and stake and no less inevitably the need for making a tenable, stable international boundary. Sikhs had a strong stake in the Montgomery, Lyallpur and Sheikhupura districts in which they had been pioneer colonists and had created unheard of prosperity through sheer dint of labour and unexampled force of hardihood and character. So, they expected that these districts, or anyway such portions of them as had a concentration of Sikh interest, would be decided to be allotted to India. The Sikhs had a further deep interest in Nankana Sahib, which is the birthplace of Sri Guru Nanak Dev, founder of Sikhism and is situated in the heart of Sheikhupura district. The Hindus of the Punjab had quite as heavy an economic stake in these districts as the Sikhs, and more so even in Lahore, which town owed almost its entire wealth, industry, educational enterprise, and importance to the vast effort the Hindus had been expending for generations in building it up. Sikh enterprise in developing Lahore was second only to the Hindu - the Muslims there being backward and unenterprising, consisting mostly of migratory seasonal labourers or petty hawkers. A large part of the Muslim population of Lahore lived on the verge of crime and other anti-social activities, and were a ready army in the hands of gangsters, rioters and now of the Muslim League fascists. The story of the allotment of the three above-named districts of Sheikhupura, Montgomery and Lyallpur besides Lahore to Pakistan is a tragic story, and is black and gross betrayal of - the Sikhs and Hindus into the hands of those who were planning to coerce, subdue and exterminate them. It is not strictly relevant to the purpose of this booklet to go into the details of this aspect of the history of the Punjab, or into the proceedings of the Punjab Boundary Commission, before which the Sikh and Hindu case was put by eminent lawyers with unanswerable force of logic. But it appears the British Government had made up their mind not to let Pakistan be a resourceless state, and so, regardless of the fate and future of the Sikhs, the above named areas were allotted to Pakistan. The award of the Boundary Commission, which in effect was the award of Sir Cyril Radcliffe was based on the population figures and any ‘other factors’ did not enter at all into its determination. And so the Sikhs were not only cut into twain, but their best lands and holiest shrines and perhaps the most enterprising portion of their population were thrown to the wolves.

The award of the Boundary Commission was made public on the 17th August, 1947. Speculation had been rife as to what the boundary was likely to be, ever since the announcement of the Mountbatten Plan on June 3. It appears the Muslims were determined that not only Lahore, but portions of the Amritsar, Jullundur and several other East Punjab Districts must come to Pakistan. They had perhaps a long-range plan as well, of which we got hints from the way the Muslims prepared for an attack on the Hindus and Sikhs of Delhi on the Punjab scale. That plan evidently was to create centres of Muslim disaffection and rebellion against the future Government of the Indian Dominion, and to prepare the way for occupation of the East Punjab, Delhi and whatever else might come into the bag, by Pakistan. With Kashmir thrown in, the empire of Pakistan on the western side would stretch from at least the Jumna westward. This was the ambitious Pakistan Plan.

In order to make such a plan a success, it was very essential that Hindus and Sikhs must be thoroughly beaten down and driven, as far as possible, from the Muslim zone, which was designed to spread as far cast as the Jumna. While the March-May attacks on Hindus and Sikhs had made Pakistan a reality in the terms of the Mountbatten announcement, the attacks of June onwards had even a fuller purpose. This was to drive Hindus and Sikhs out of Lahore, Amritsar and other large towns by a campaign of murder and arson. So, the month of June saw a vigorous flare-up of the trouble in Lahore and Amritsar and the occurrence of attacks on Hindus and Sikhs in towns which had so far been more or less quiet, such as Gujranwala and Gujrat.

On June 13, 1947 Mozang which has already been mentioned as figuring prominently in March in attacks on Hindus and Sikhs, was a highly disturbed area. Many Hindu and Sikh houses and shops were burned. The situation deteriorated to such an extent that a curfew, lasting 60 hours had to be imposed on the area. In this area shots were fired on Hindu and Sikh houses from adjoining Muslim houses. The area of the fires was quite wide and spread over the different parts of Mozang, a locality roughly a mile square.

Destruction by arson appears to have been from now on the settled policy of the Muslim Leaguers in Lahore. The fate of Lahore still lay in the hands of the non-Muslim legislators, who were to meet on the 23rd June to decide on the partition or otherwise of the Punjab, and later in the hands of the Boundary Commission. But the Muslim. Leaguers wanted to drive all Hindus and Sikhs from Lahore. If Lahore came to Pakistan, it would have been a good riddance and action according to plan if Hindus and Sikhs were made to vacate Lahore. It was calculated that the vast wealth accumulated by Hindus and Sikhs for generations in this magnificent city would fall into the hands of Muslims. If Lahore by any chance was allotted to India, it would have been a good thing to have destroyed this fine city, and to make a present of heaps of ashes and cinders to the new rulers of India on August 15, 1947. Such calculation and surging hate and malice appear to have directed the course of Muslim action in Lahore in the months from the beginning of June onwards. It is said also that the Muslim goondas of Lahore were put to shame by their compeers in Amritsar, who had done extremely well in murdering Hindus and Sikhs of that city and in reducing about a quarter of the town of Amritsar to ashes. In an interview to the Press Mr. Eustace, District Magistrate of Lahore revealed that the Muslim goondas of Amritsar sent, as a mark of sarcastic provocation churis (glass bangles) and mehndi (henna) to the goondas of Lahore, implying lack of manliness and feminity in them in not having ‘done’ anything against Hindus and Sikhs. The Lahore goondas were evidently stung to the quick, and stirred their ‘manliness’ not a little, by setting fire to a good part of the Hindu and Sikh localities of Lahore and letting loose on the city a campaign of stabbing and looting, which went on unimpeded with active police and official support.

On the 19th June while some non-Muslim workmen were proceeding to the Railway Workshop, a bomb was thrown at the party, injuring several. Several cases of stabbing occurred in the Muslim areas of Brandreth Road, Bull Road, Barkatali Road, Circular Road and Railway Road. Stabbing of non-Muslims also took place inside Mochi Gate (a Muslim area). The area covered by Naulakha Police Station, a thickly populated Muslim area, commanding ingress and egress from the city as it is situated near the Railway Station and the general lorry stand, beside a number of important road junctions, became dangerously active, and had to be placed under 42-hour curfew. On this day occurred the widest and longest campaign of burning down Hindu and Sikh localities hitherto experienced in Lahore. Mohalla Jalotian Sanda Kalan, Kucha Moolomata, Chohatta Wasti Bhagat, Bazar Nauharian and several other localities saw buildings set ablaze. On the evening of 19th June as many as 22 fires could be seen raging in the city of Lahore. The fire-raisers had done their job with an efficiency and skill born of long training and possession of quick incendiary materials. Sprinkling of petrol with the help of stirrup pumps and then setting the whole place ablaze with a piece of cotton set alight or a burning rocket was the process employed. Here as elsewhere the victims, Hindus and Sikhs, whose houses and localities were thus set on fire, were totally helpless in fighting the fire, or retaliating on the Muslims in kind had they had the desire to do so.

The whole plan was well laid out by the League arson squads in conjunction with the police and officials. The area marked out was generally made the scene of a few stabbing cases or brawls. It was then placed under curfew. As the administration of the curfew was in the hands of Muslim officials and police, Hindus and Sikhs naturally had to observe the provisions of the curfew order strictly. The least appearance of a Hindu or Sikh in the balcony of a house or above the projection of a wall, drew a shot from the police. Not so the Muslim goondas. They were allowed to move about freely. So, during curfew hours, under cover of the police who would keep the coast thoroughly clear, the Muslim miscreants set fire to Hindu and Sikh houses. This fire would spread quickly. Any Hindu and Sikh coming out of his house even to take steps to fight this fire was liable to be shot at for defiance of curfew rules. The police kept Hindus and Sikhs completely at bay. So, the choice open to the Lahore Hindus and Sikhs from June onwards was this:

They must either have their houses and house-hold effects burnt, and themselves along with these in the fire;

Or, they, must be shot down by the police in the attempt to extinguish the fires or to escape with their lives from their burning houses.

21st June dawned terrible and grim in Lahore, even more than the two previous days. On this day a bus was stopped by Muslim goondas outside Mochi Gate, a purely Muslim locality. Hindu and Sikh passengers were pulled out, the Muslims being asked to stand in a separate line. The Muslim goondas on such occasions used the term ‘chhatra’ (a sheep) or ‘suer’ (pig) for the victims, and asked the drivers if they happened to be Muslims, to surrender their prey to them. 10 of these unhappy passengers were stabbed to death and left dead on the Circular Road. On this day the city, of Lahore, both walled and new, saw altogether 46 fires raging in it. In the walled city alone, a thickly populated area, concentrating a population of 3 lakhs in a square mile or so, 20 fires were burning in the Hindu and Sikh localities. Gurdwara Baoli Sahib inside Dabbi Bazar in the walled city was attempted to be burned, but was saved by the arrival of a military patrol.

On the 22nd June, the campaign of arson took a still more widespread and ‘all-out’ form. On this day the town had as many as 69 fires burning in its different localities. Shahalmi Gate, the biggest and busiest trading centre of Lahore, almost entirely Hindu, was the spot selected for destruction by Muslims this time. To close down the trading areas inside this gate would mean paralysing almost the whole of Hindu business and means of sustenance, and would cause a general exodus f Hindus from Lahore. M. G. Cheema, the notorious magistrate who figured in a High Court enquiry for excesses against Hindus and Sikhs, directed this biggest so far destruction of non-Muslim property in Lahore. Several busy shopping centres, each commanding immense trade, were completely gutted, the houses on both sides of the narrow streets having fallen and blocked the roads with debris. Hindus attempting to escape from the flames were repeatedly fired on by the police. Mohalla Sarin, Bazar Satthan, Pipal Virha etc., were some of the other localities which were destroyed by fire. Magistrate M. G. Cheema, instead of bringing any relief to the unfortunate Hindus and Sikhs of these localities only arrested the men-folk and subjected the women-folk to shameful, humiliating and most indecent treatment, which these unfortunate ladies narrated with tears in their eyes to Pt. Nehru, Vice-President of the Interim Government of India, when soon after he visited Lahore.

With the burning of a good part of Hindu Lahore, and repeated attempts at arson in Krishan Nagar, Chauburji and other areas, there began a general exodus of Hindus and Sikhs from Lahore. Every outgoing train was full of people whose houses, shops and places of business had been destroyed and who travelled east for places where to keep their families. Thus, already in June, on the heels of the Rawalpindi refugee problem, a new refugee problem, involving more than a lakh of people, emerged for the Hindus and Sikhs of the Punjab.

A party of Lahore journalists went round the city of Lahore after this terrible destruction. This is the pitiful sight they described:-

“It was a pitiful sight when saw in the city on Thursday morning with a party of Pressmen. Houses once inhabited by happy families now stood there deserted, blackened and burnt out. Smoke was still coming out of many of them and the air was heavy with a bitter tang which irritated the eyes and nostrils.

“Shahalmi Gate, once the main centre of provisions trade, has become a wreck.

“A block of 250 houses and shops has been reduced to ashes and the main street is impassable with mounds of rubble still smouldering. In order to check the fire from spreading to the nearby houses the authorities have ordered the demolition of the burnt-out or half-burnt houses.

“The party then visited Mozang which had suffered heavy destruction of property. Rows of houses have been burnt out leaving behind smoking rubble, charred bricks, and twisted girders. The houses in this area were mostly empty, for the occupants of the houses anticipating trouble ahead, had migrated to safer places. The demolition of the half-burnt houses and clearing of the debris was in progress.”

Ichhra and Mozang are two nearly purely Muslim areas, the Hindu and Sikh populations in them being scattered and slight. Muslim goondas of these areas indulged in a continued and widespread campaign of arson in Hindu and Sikh houses. On June 27, the police rounded up 11 such Muslim goondas. On this very day, a steel foundary and a firewood store, both belonging to non-Muslims, were set on fire.

Misri Shah is another thickly populated Muslim area, situated on the northern side of the railway track, beyond the railway station. This area saw an intensified campaign of loot, arson and murder let loose upon its non-Muslim population, on June 30. Arms were found or collected in Muslim houses on search being made. The burning of houses and stabbing of non-Muslims became so serious that the area and to be placed under a 72-hour curfew and to be cordoned off.

July was a month of violent and widespread attacks on Hindus and Sikhs in Lahore. The elimination and extermination of these minorities by the Muslims was proceeding apace now, and the field covered was coming to embrace more and new spheres of life and activity. Moghalpura Railway Workshop was one of the biggest of its kind in undivided Northern India, employing thousands of workers, Muslims as well as non-Muslims. The area is a Muslim majority area, with Baghbanpura, a suburb notorious for its attacks on non-Muslim life and property lying hardly a mile off. Early in July, during the lunch recess, a Muslim mob got into the workshop premises and stabbed to death a large number of Sikh and Hindu workers. A still larger number were injured. The same evening a Hindu cycling home from Mughalpura area was waylaid on the road, and his throat cut by Muslims with slow torture like that of a goat slaughtered in Muslim fashion. On July 23, a special train which used to carry workers daily from Lahore to the Harbanspura workshop was stopped near Mughalpura Railway Station, and an attack made on the Hindus and Sikhs in it. The train had been held up by placing boulders across with track. In this attack eight Hindus and Sikhs are reported to have been killed and twelve injured. More casualties were averted as the engine-driver kept his nerve, removed the obstruction from the track and drove the train away. There were on this very day reported more than half a dozen cases of stabbing and shooting down of Hindus and Sikhs from the various Muslim localities of Lahore, such as Tibbi, Bhati Gate and Naulakha area. There were several cases of arson, the most serious being the burning down of a cinema house outside Bhati Gate, belonging to a Hindu.

On July 30, a train was attacked near Tangra, a station about 15 miles distant from Amritsar, and several passengers killed. Muslim Leaguers had made train hold-ups a very important part of their method of warfare on Hindus and Sikhs. A few days before a train was similarly attacked near Hoshiarpur. The Mughalpura train attack has been mentioned just above.

Several passengers were brutally murdered at Wazirabad station after which the Muslim assailants set fire to Hindu shops and business premises. The Wazirabad branches of the Punjab National Bank and the Lakshmi Commercial Bank were gutted after being looted. The cashier of the Punjab and Kashmir Bank was stabbed.

The bazar of Malakwal, a well-known mandi, was burnt. Trains were stopped at Alha, a wayside railway station, where several people were killed.

Three persons including a two-year old child were shot dead inside a house at Rawalpindi.

A major disaster on Chakwal line was averted by the police and through courage shown by an Anglo-Indian Railway Inspector, who was travelling in that train. A gang of about half a dozen hooligans, armed with sten-guns blocked the rail between Harnal and Mandra-Bhaun section of the N. W. Railway. Noticing that there were some non-Muslims in a particular compartment the inspector, who had a revolver, immediately came out of his compartment and returned the fire. The intruders thinking that military was accompanying the train, withdrew after killing two and injuring there. Several passengers were killed at Taxila Railway Station.

Footnotes:

 
 ^ contents ^ 

Firing continued to be directed against the famous Dehra Sahib Gurdwara of Lahore, site of the martyrdom of Sri Guru Arjan Dev, fifth Guru of the Sikhs. This, in spite of the fact that this place is situated at a distance of hardly five yards from the Lahore Fort, Headquarters of the Additional Police and military pickets for the city. Water-taps supplying water to the Gurdwara estate were cut off, so that the inmates about 150 in number, should be left to die through sheer thirst. After firing for some time, the Muslim National Guards advanced towards the Gurdwara, and set fire to the building adjoining the Gurdwara. The whole area was ablaze in a few minutes’ time. Some Sikhs had taken shelter in the Samadh (Mausoleum) of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, which is separated from the Gurdwara by a distance of about 30 yards. Here the Muslim crowd, amid cries of “Pakistan zindabad” etc. and filthy abuse directed against the Sikhs battered at the Gates of the Samadh. Several Sikhs were shot dead. The gates of the Gurdwara and Samadh were perforated with bullets. These happenings occurred on the 13th August. On the 14th the Gurdwara was put under the guard of the Boundary Force of General Rees.

Baoli Sahib Gurdwara, situate in Dabbi Bazar, and close to two thickly populated Muslim areas, was burned on the 4th June. The place was in flames, and such Sikhs as were inside it were shot dead or roasted alive.

Gurdwara Janam Asthan was subjected to continuous attacks since June. Muslim police pickets posted ostensibly for the purpose of protection of this place abetted arson and attacks on the Gurdwara. On August 11, Baulch Military entered the Gurdwara on pretext of finding out supposed bombs concealed inside the Gurdwara, and there bayoneted or shot dead 13 Sikhs.

This is part of the systematic campaign of terror and destruction carried on by Muslims against Sikhs.

 
 ^ contents ^ 

The new Viceroy, Lord Mountbatten, who took over from Lord Wavell in March, 1947 arrived upon a terrible scene of carnage and destruction in the Punjab, the effects of which were soon to envelop the Frontier Province in a carnage and destruction equally severe and were to spread out into most parts of Northern, Eastern and Central India in the form of serious communal rioting. The Viceroy sincerely wanted this bloodshed to end and an atmosphere of calm negotiation and preparation for the transfer of power to be created. So, in the midst of the recrudesence of communal attacks in Amritsar, following upon the uprooting of a large part of the Hindu and Sikh population of the Rawalpindi division and Multan, he initiated a peace appeal to be addressed by Mahatma Gandhi and Mr. Jinnah to the country. This appeal, the text of which was publicized all over the country in dozens of ways known to the modern technique of publicity, was carried to the farthest corners of the country. Especially in the Punjab the publicity given to it was tremendous indeed. The communique announcing the appeal, bearing the signatures of the two leaders, ran as follows -

“On His Excellency the Viceroy’s initiative and at his specific request, Mahatma Gandhi and Mr. Jinnah signed the following declaration and authorized its publication:

“We deeply deplore the recent acts of lawlessness and violence that have brought utmost disgrace to the fair name of India and the greatest misery to innocent people, irrespective of who were the aggressors and who were the victims.

“We denounce for all time the use of force to achieve political ends and we call upon all the communities in India, to whatever persuasion they may belong, not only to refrain from all acts of violence and disorder but also to avoid, both in speech and in writing, any incitement to such acts.”

This appeal, signed as it was by the two most influential men in India, did not stop acts of aggression on innocent people in the Punjab, in the Frontier Province and later in other parts of India. The reason for this appeal falling flat on the people of India is not far to seek. That reason is, that the appeal was not meant seriously and sincerely by the party which needed to back it up with sincerity and earnestness. That party was the Muslim League. The Congress had never made communal warfare its political weapon. On the contrary the Congress wanted passionately to keep a united and strongly-welded Indian nation to receive power as an undivided and powerful free India from the British Government. The League, on the contrary, wanted to achieve its separate state of Pakistan. It must show the creation of such a state to be inevitable for a solution of the country’s problem. For showing this it argued, it was not possible for Hindus and Muslims even to live together, much less to fight for a common political objective. And knowing that Hindus (and Sikhs) would not agree to a partition of the country the League wanted to force them into accepting it, or driving them out of certain zones in which no non-Muslim populations would be left to resist partition and to demand organic political relationship with a Central Government of All-India. So, the League, from its Direct Action Day on, in August, 1946 organised warfare against the minorities of Bengal, the Frontier Province, the Punjab and later of Baluchistan and Sind as well. In this background how could it be expected that the League would relinquish by stopping communal warfare, the one weapon which would help it to achieve its objective? So the Muslims never took the appeal of Jinnah seriously. The very words of the communique, containing the appeal, ‘On H. E. the Viceroy’s initiative’ vitiated its nature and diluted its-force and appeal. The appeal did not proceed spontaneously from the heart of Jinnah. He put his signature to it out of courtesy with undoubted mental reservations. That is the light in which the average Muslim took this appeal. An appeal to be effective must proceed from the heart and must have the backing of a man’s will and actions. When the Congress denounced the rioting by Hindus in Bihar, it also followed up its denunciation by effective action. And the Bihar riots stopped, even though the average Hindu thought the Congress was being hard on the Hindus. That thought was no doubt wrong, but what is intended to be shown is the way in which an appeal, if it is sincerely meant, can and should be made effective.

The Muslim League leaders pursued a path contrary to the spirit in which an appeal like the Gandhi-Jinnah appeal should have been followed up. They continued to visit troubled areas like Amritsar for further incitement and for giving directions for new attacks. They continued with a pose of hypocritical innocence, to denounce imaginary Hindu-Sikh atrocities against Muslims. A full-hearted condemnation of the Rawalpindi Carnage or the Multan destruction never came from the Muslim League. There was a train outrage near Kohat in early April, in which a number of Hindu and Sikh refugees were killed by a Muslim mob. No Leaguer condemned this barbarous act. The League silence was direct approval of and implied incitement to the repetition of such incidents, which in fact multiplied more and more as the months advanced. Wrote the Civil and Military Gazette of Lahore regarding this in its issue of April 6, 1947:-

“ ... we have waited in vain for responsible League condemnation of the dastardly train outrage near Kohat. In this eight people, including four women, were murdered, 20 wounded and one woman kidnapped, while 15 men, women and children are missing, as a result of an attack made by what Dr. Khan Sahib, Premier of the Frontier Province, describes as Muslim Leaguers in green uniforms…… League efforts should be made to help the authorities to trace the miscreants ... .”

Now this was exactly what the League never did. It never condemned such acts and never helped the authorities in tracing such criminals, who in fact were its own army in action. It may be recalled that Mahatma Gandhi successfully persuaded Hindu murderers of Muslims in the Bihar Riots to surrender themselves to justice. Master Tara Singh repeatedly said, and rightly too, that the only basis on which any peace negotiations could be entered into was that the League must condemn Muslim acts of violence against Hindus and Sikhs, and help to trace Muslim criminals.

When the Gandhi-Jinnah appeal was issued, the Civil and Military Gazette wrote editorially on this:-

“Will Mr. Jinnah honour his signature to the document by banning the unconstitutional agitation of the Muslim League in the North-Western Frontier Province?”

Mahatma Gandhi was disappointed at Mr. Jinnah not following up his appeal with actions. In his New Delhi prayer meeting on May 2 he said:

“It was not open to Jinnah Sahib to plead (in explanation of the ineffectiveness of the appeal) that his followers did not listen to his appeal. That would be cutting the whole ground from under his feet, because he was the undisputed leader of the All-India Muslim League, which claimed to represent the Muslim population.

“Where was the authority of the League if the Muslims resorted to violence for gaining political aim which was summed up in the word Pakistan?

“He said that he had expressed his doubts as to the wisdom of issuing the joint appeal unless it was certain that it meant for both the signatories all that the words thereof conveyed.”

The concluding words quoted from the Mahatma’s speech are significant. For Mr. Jinnah the words of the appeal did not mean all that they meant for the Mahatma. He, Mr. Jinnah, signed it with mental reservations.

Referring to Mr. Jinnah’s evident disinclination to make this appeal effective, Syed Ali Zaheer said:

“The riots were and are the direct result of the Direct Action resolution of the Muslim League, and they began on August 16, 1946. So long as that resolution holds the field, such appeals are a mere farce. If Mr. Jinnah had called the meeting of the Working Committee of the League and had asked it to withdraw that resolution, the appeal would have had a more earnest ring about it. As it is, it sounds hollow ... ”

So, attacks on trains and buses, burning of whole quarters of towns, murders of thousands with unspeakable atrocities proceeded unchecked or uncondemned by the League. Its plan of action was succeeding admirably. Pakistan was coming within near sight by every act of lawlessness committed by the League adherents, for it was only another argument for separate states for two such hostile peoples as Hindus and Muslims.

 
 ^ contents ^ 

The wave of attacks on Hindus and Sikhs, travelling from the Rawalpindi and Multan Divisions, spread in a wild and virulent form to the N.-W. Frontier Province and especially to the Trans-Indus Frontier District of Dera Ismail Khan, in which as all over this area, Hindus and Sikhs were in microscopic minority. The Frontier adherents of the Muslim League fell upon the handful of Hindus and Sikhs with the primitive fanaticism characteristic of the Muslims of this area.

An agitation on the lines of the Punjab agitation of January-February had been started by the Frontier Muslim League. This agitation was even from its inception accompanied by acts of violence, including arson, murder and kidnapping of Hindus and Sikhs. By the end of March, following on the Rawalpindi massacres and looting, the entire Frontier Province was ablaze with similar outrages against Hindus and Sikhs. The murders and looting, and migration of the Hindu and Sikh population of Hazara District to the Punjab, in the January of 1947 has already been told of.

Now from the N.-W. F. P. news of widespread attacks on Hindus and Sikhs began to pour in. This is the report for Sunday the 30th March, 1947:-

“Two shopkeepers were injured by two bullets in Babjani Bazar, Peshawar City, while a Muslim League procession was passing through that area on Sunday afternoon.

“A case of arson has been reported from Peshawar Cantonment, where an attempt was made to set fire to a godown containing wood, behind the Khalsa School.

“Four shops have been burnt in Kaghan Valley, in Hazara District.

“(In Dera Ismail Khan) a Hindu was kidnapped on Saturday by three armed men a few miles from Paniala village” etc.

In the Frontier Province, notwithstanding the genuine and heroic efforts of the Congress Ministry under Dr. Khan Sahib to stem the tide of communal warfare, it was discovered that the plot of the Muslim League and the British officers was so deep laid that no efforts to stop these attacks were of any avail. By April, a large part of the Hindu and Sikh population, following in the wake of the population of Rawalpindi, had had to be evacuated to Eastern districts of the Punjab or into refugee camps. The trains carrying these refugees were attacked pretty often on the way. Reads a communique issued by the Frontier Government on April 2:

“Hindu and Sikh passengers on the railway train which left Kohat for Rawalpindi this morning was attacked by a mob armed with firearms at Gorzai, 17 miles from Kohat. Six persons were killed and 20 injured.

“(In Kohat city) this morning one Hindu hawker was fatally stabbed.

“ABOUT 7,000 HINDUS AND SIKHS - NEARLY A QUARTER OF THIS MINORITY POPULATION OF PESHAWAR CITY - HAVE LEFT PESHAWAR CITY FOR THE PUNJAB AND OTHER PARTS OF INDIA SINCE MARCH 20.” (Civil and Military Gazette report, in the issue dated 3. 4. 1947).

While in the town of Peshawar some, even though very inadequate police and other protection could be looked forward to by the minorities, in the smaller towns and in the countryside none whatever could be had. There, Hindus and Sikhs were simply waylaid and killed or their houses attacked and their property and womenfolk carried away. Where the men were not killed, they were forcibly converted. Thousands of such forced converts were seen after their evacuation by the military in Amritsar and other cities of the Punjab. Pitiable indeed was their plight. They were mostly living in twos or threes in villages scattered all over the Frontier Province, doing retail shopkeeping or tilling small patches of land. They were turned out of their houses. In most cases the Sikhs - and even old men of seventy were not spared this - were shaved and made to look like Muslims. Many were circumcised. Almost all were forced to swallow beef. All through April and subsequent months, while all the districts of the Punjab, in which Hindus and Sikhs were in a majority, remained quiet, these destitute and homeless people continued to come to the Punjab in an unending stream, seeking shelter after their harrowing experiences at the hands of the Muslim League-led mobs. Thus was Pakistan being founded and the elimination of minorities proceeding apace.

But the story of the Frontier Province is not yet over. The worst part of it is Dera Ismail Khan. On April 15, the Frontier Government communique stated:-

“Numerous fires are raging in Dera Ismail Khan today. The situation in the city is serious…… A procession started from the Muslim League office this morning and divided itself into different parties. One party went towards the Courts and the post office and caused damage to the buildings. The other parties went into the city and set fire to shops and residential houses in different parts of the town.

The April 16 report says:

“Half the city of Dera Ismail Khan is burned ...

“Last night the village of Paora near Dera Ismail ban was raided by unknown persons who indulged in looting and arson. Three persons were killed in Paora and 54 shops and houses were burned. Fires are still raging in the village.

“Raiders kidnapped four Hindus, including a woman last night from Hayat Khel village, six miles from Pezu in Bannu District. Another Hindu woman was murdered.”

The April 17 report says:

“Fires have been seen in six other villages in (Dera Ismail Khan) District. At Tank a part of the town is on fire and two persons are reported to have been killed. Full details are not yet known.

“A Hindu was shot in the abdomen in his shop in the Peshwar Cantonment this afternoon.

“The extent of the loss of life and property in Dera Ismail Khan is not authoritatively known, but according to unofficial estimates about 400 shops and houses have been burned, apart from the Cinema house, the Town Hall, Pawindeh Serai, two prominent places of worship and the V. B. College¹ and School.

“Besides ten persons killed and injured, some more bodies are feared to be still under debris. Bazare Kalan, the grain market and parts of the Pawindah and Bhatianwala bazar are reported to have been gutted.

“The first place which was set on fire was the Cinema Hall on Circular Road. Then some shops outside Topanwala Gate were burned. Meanwhile several fires were seen raging in various parts of the city and within a short time it enveloped the prominent business centres.”

The April 18 and 19 reports say:

“The situation is serious in the town of Tank. Looting and burning have been extensive and several civilians have been killed.

“Other disturbed places in the District (Dera Ismail Khan) are: Gomal Bazar: tribesmen raided the village last night. Paharpur: 32 shops and 60 houses burned, three persons killed, three wounded, three missing. Kotjai: 12 shops burned, one person wounded. Kotla: ten houses and shops burned, three women killed and one wounded. Kirri Khaisor: 30 persons converted to Islam. Musa Zat: about 25 shops burned, one killed, one wounded.” In Gandi Umar Khan and Jatla Jalwa arson on a fairly large scale occurred.

Qazi Ataullah Khan, Revenue Minister of the Frontier Province, in a statement threw a flood of light on the widespread organized and co-ordinated way in which the Muslim Leaguers were carrying on a parallel campaign of harassement and elimination of the minorities in the Punjab and the Frontier Province. (The story of the incitement to ‘action’ offered by the Muslims of Amritsar to those of Lahore has already been told). The Revenue Minister revealed:

“All was well till two days before this loot and arson when a young man came from the Punjab and made highly inflammatory speeches. He also held Conferences with the Muslim League leaders. He asked the people that if nothing else, they could at least set fire to houses of Hindus and loot their property. Soon after this speech by this young man from the Punjab young boys, supported by local Muslim League workers, began to set fire to shops.”

“The latest reports (19.4.47) describe the situation in Dera Ismail Khan Tehsil as still serious. In Tank town, 1,500 refugees have been removed to Police Stations and other places of safety in the town.

“Some houses and shops in Tank are still burning and reports have come in of further trouble from the outlying villages of the district.

“Cases of forcible conversion are reported from several villages, including Kalagor, Dhalla, Rodi Khel and Mandra. Twenty-four casualties are reported from these villages and a number of persons have been kidnapped.

“Two shopkeepers in Dabgari Bazar (Peshawar) were fired at when they were sitting at their shops.”

In Dera Ismail Khan the total number of shops burned with their entire stocks was 1,000 and the estimated value of the loss was Rupees two crores. In the Province there were 30,000 refugees.

According to one estimate 100 Hindus and Sikhs had been killed in Peshawar by April 20; 25 were wounded.

On April 22, eight persons were killed and 15 injured in an encounter between raiders and a police party which was evacuating evacuees from the village of Paora to Dera Ismail Khan. Trouble was also reported in Kulachi, in Dera Ismail Khan District, which houses and shops were burned in Lulachi Bazar.

Up till the end of April and later, Muslim attacks on Hindus and Sikhs in Dera Ismail Khan continued. On April 29, at Kulachi the raiders started a fire and began looting houses and shops. Two Hindus were killed. Places of worship, houses and shops were burned. At Gomal two Hindus were killed, and places of worship, houses and shops were burned.

Disclosing the background of the atrocities committed on Hindus and Sikhs in the Frontier, Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, in a statement on May 6, 1947 accused the Frontier Governor Sir Olaf Caroe of ‘an open conspiracy with the Muslim League to bathe the province in blood’ and said, ‘he (the Governor) wanted to hand over power to the Muslim League, whose followers have been indulging in the murder of innocent men, women and children.’ The Khan asserted, “if the Governor wants he can stop all lawlessness in the Frontier in two days, but how can he when he himself is guiding the violent and communal League movement?”

So, here was another evidence of the League-Bureaucracy plot to create the ground and favourable atmosphere for Pakistan, for which all means, not excluding murder, loot, arson and dishonouring of women were to be employed.

Jullundur:- This district is now included in East Punjab. Before Partition its Muslim population was 45.23%, Hindus being 17.59% and Sikhs being 26.50% of the total. Adi Dharmis made up about more than 10%. The town of Jullundur itself had a very large Muslim population - about more than 70%. This place was, therefore one of the strongholds of the Muslim League in the Punjab, and the Muslim National Guards had one of their biggest rallying places in it. Mr. Jinnah, in his tours of the Punjab had given due and important attention to the potentialities of Jullundur as a Muslim League stronghold, and in 1943 one of the biggest Muslim Conferences, presided over by Mr. Jinnah was held in Jullundur. At this Conference very provocative pro-Pakistan speeches had been made, and Hindus and Sikhs of this area had been a great deal impressed with the Muslim determination to push forward the Pakistan programme at all costs.

The Muslims of Jullundur were a well-to-do class on the whole, with part of the lucrative trade of the town in their hands. They therefore financed and organized the Muslim League and Muslim National Guards of this town and area quite efficiently. When on the 5th of March, 1947 the Muslim of Amritsar opened their severe and ruthless attack on Hindus and Sikhs, which almost completely paralysed and caught by the throat the latter, the Muslims of Jullundur too, a town less than 50 miles from Amritsar, opened an attack in their own place. On the 6th March, a large Muslim mob gathered, shouting slogans and molesting individual Hindus and Sikhs, though as yet no widespread attacks had begun. Babu Labh Singh, a former President of the Shiromani Akali Dal, important political organisation of the Sikhs and an ardent Congressman, appeared among Muslims requesting them with folded hands to desist from fighting and to save the Punjab from destruction. This appeal fell flat on the Muslims, who continued their shouting and attacks. Rather than heed the good old gentleman’s peace appeals, this Muslim mob stabbed him to death. This kind of behaviour has been found to be characteristic of Muslims during the last Punjab disturbances: peace-makers and those who were specifically sent for to negotiate have been done to death. The Muslim Leaguers have respected no canon of civilized warfare. Women and children have been murdered, atrocities committed and brutalities indulged in. Babu Labh Singh’s dastardly murder sent a wave of horror among the Hindus and Sikhs of Jullundur and Hoshiarpur districts. The town of Jullundur was placed under curfew and the situation was tense, but few incidents occurred after this.

In Hoshiarpur, the District neighbouring on Jullundur, Muslims continued to Misbehave, and made attacks on Hindu and Sikh passengers in trains. Sikhs all through this period did not attack Muslims.

In Ludhiana, a Sikh majority district, but with a 70% Muslim population in the town itself, the Muslims in early March opened attacks on Hindus and Sikhs. Several Sikhs were murdered. Sikhs did not make reprisals.

All through the months from March to August, 1947 from these above non-Muslims majority districts and from Ferozepore, the four districts besides Amritsar in which Sikhs have always counted as a political force, the typical press report and Government communiques have been- ‘No incidents.’ This alone will tell eloquently how long the Hindus and Sikhs remained calm in the face of Muslim aggression in Central, North-Western and South-Western Punjab, and how only as a last desperate resort, they opened a counter-attack on Muslim after long months of Muslim attack and aggression.

Footnotes:

 
 ^ contents ^ 

The big attacks on the Hindus and Sikhs of Lahore began to be delivered from third June. The destruction wrought in the city was so horrible and appalling that in a desperate effort to save the city from complete devastation a meeting of the three communities was called in the Town Hall on the 27th June. At this meeting, the leaders of the Hindus and Sikhs gave assurances of keeping the peace. So did the leaders of the Muslims. These latter spoke very emphatic and reassuring words, which however, were belied by their followers as soon as they were uttered. Lahore continued to bum in spite of what the Muslim League leaders said. Khan Iftikhar Husain Khan of Momdot, then President of the Punjab Muslim League, pledged his community to peace in these words:

“On behalf of the Muslim people, I solemnly pledge to my Hindu and Sikh brothers complete justice and fairness of treatment in Pakistan. The Muslims of Pakistan will guard and protect the honour, dignity, person and property of the minorities above their own. I call upon the Muslims to honour with their life, the word I am pledging on their behalf. I call upon them to check all lawlessness, to fight against all forms of chaos, and to see that everyone who calls himself a Muslim stays his hand.”

The effect of such assurances, multiplied by the utterances of other important Muslim League leaders was that exodus of Hindus and Sikhs from Lahore for the moment decreased. Hindu and Sikh capital was fast flowing out of Lahore. Banks, companies and business houses were obtaining permission to shift their headquarters from Lahore. But the effect of these assurances lasted only for a very short while. Hindus and Sikhs realized with a rude shock that the speeches of the Muslim League leaders were merely a smoke-screen to conceal their designs of securing complete elimination of the minorities from their own areas, and were meant only to lull them into a false sense of security. These very leaders were financing and guiding the operations of the goondas of the Muslim League, who in collaboration with the police did the work of arson and stabbing. It was after this appeal that on the 10th July 7 Hindus and Sikhs are reported to have been killed and 40 injured in the Muslim attack on the Lahore Loco Workshop. It was during this time that Sikhs continued to be murdered in Baghbanpura, Singhpura, Faizbagh, Mozang, Shahi Mohalla, Garhi Shahu and other areas wherever the Muslims wanted to carry on their operations. In July it was that bombs began to be thrown on non-Muslims in trains, such as at Moghalpura, and murders of groups took place in trains as at Harbanspura. In arson, Bhati Gate, Tibbi, Chauk Surjan Singh, Landa Bazar etc. figured. Sikh Gurdwaras were burned inside the city. By the end of July it was all going as the Muslims desired. Localities burned were: Shish Mahal Road, Chaumala Sahib Gurdwara, Mela Ram Road, Pipal Vehra, Moti Panda Bazar, Fleming Road, Bazar Sathan, Moti Bazar, Bazar Tutian, Dabbi Bazar, Bazaz Hatta, Chauburji, Krishna Nagar, Mohalla Sarin and the new Shalamar Garden situated to the Western side of the city. Even the Mall was no longer safe, where several cases of arson occurred and Hindu and Sikh property was burned.

During this period attacks on the life and property of Hindus and Sikhs were going on also in the neighbouring district of Gujranwala, from where too a large exodus of Hindus and Sikhs, who owned almost the entire business and industry of this prosperous district, was taking place. Gujrat, Sargodha and Sialkot too had started in right earnest the process of the elimination of minorities.

As the date on which Pakistan was to he established, that is August 15, was drawing nearer Muslims everywhere in the Muslim majority districts and in some places even in the East were growing aggressive. With the line of demarcation between Eastern and Western Punjab still unknown and uncertain, Muslims of districts like Amritsar, Jullundur and Ferozepore held strong hopes of these districts or anyway some portions of them, being awarded to Pakistan. The attitude with which the Muslims looked upon non-Muslims was that the latter were to be held by them as a subservient people for whom a less than human treatment would just be good enough. Shri Kiron Shankar Roy, the well-known leader of Bengal, in a statement to the press on July 22 said of the temper of East Bengal Muslims:

“There is a notion among ordinary Muslims in the Eastern Pakistan region that after August 15 the houses and land of the Hindus there will automatically pass into the possession of Muslims, and that the Hindus will be a sort subject race under the Muslims of that area.”

What Mr. Roy said about the Muslims of Bengal, applies with still greater force to the Muslims of the Punjab, about whom the Civil and Military Gazette of Lahore said in its issue of the 30th December, 1948 that each one of them thought that he had become a Nawab.

This social arrogance made the temper of Muslim aggression grow hotter and hotter as August 15 approached. Attacks on Hindus and Sikhs everywhere, burning of their houses and shops, hounding them out of their villages and fields in every district, became the order of the day. In this campaign the police and military, which now with the partition of personnel and assets between India and Pakistan were completely Muslim on the Pakistan side, gave not only active help to the riotous Muslim mobs, but often-times led them, directed their operations and finished off the job of murder where the mobs could not succeed single-handed.

The non-Muslim population of Lahore had been reduced to only a fraction of itself by August. But still more than a lakh of Hindus and Sikhs were in Lahore. According to a Civil and Military Gazette report Sikhs especially had refused to leave Lahore, and said Lahore was their home. That not to have left Lahore was a mistake was proved by the destruction which rained on Hindus and Sikhs there from the 9th thousands of corpses of Hindus and Sikhs which continued in that period of lawlessness to lie unattended, emitting a foul stench which it is said was called with grim humour “Pakistani boo.”

About the part of the Muslim police and military in these August attacks on Hindus and Sikhs, the special correspondent of The Hindustan Times of Delhi stated:

“Seventy per cent of the casualties of the last three weeks in West Punjab were inflicted by the communally maddened troops and policemen. The victims of their bullets numbered thousands. The massacre at Sheikhupura, which was their handiwork, puts into shade the slaughter at Jalianwala Bagh. The annihilation of thousands in Shakargarh Tehsil, when the whole story is revealed, will be found to have put to shade even Sheikhupura.”

On the 10th August almost all Hindu and Sikh localities were set on fire. Fires were raging in Chune Mandi, Bazaz Hatta, Sua Bazar, Lohari Gate, Mohalla Sathan and Mozang. Everywhere the police led the attacks on non-Muslim areas.

non-Muslim tried to escape from this burning inferno. But all outlets were closed to them. On the 11th August at least 500 people were killed, while trying to escape from Lahore with their lives. In the streets, on the roads, and especially at the Railway Station they were killed in hundreds. Muslim goondas, Muslim National Guards and the Baluch Military who were part of the Boundary Force, all participated in this slaughter with zeal and gusto. The only non-Muslim evacuees who escaped killing on this day, were those who either by good luck or through someone’s help managed to reach the Lahore Cantonment Railway Station. These got into the trains reaching Ferozepore, and thus saved their lives. That was because there were Sikh soldiers in, the Cantonment area, and so Muslim aggression could not be free there. Lahore main station was completely in the grip of Muslim troops and police. Harrowed, miserable Hindu and Sikh refugees from Lahore began to be in evidence in towns of the East Punjab as far off as Ambala by the 13th August. . They came completely destitute, hungry and with a haunting terror of death at the hands of Muslims in their eyes.

Other areas which were set on fire on August 12 and 13 were: Bharat Nagar, Singhpura, Dabbi Bazar, Lohari Gate, Gali Hingaran, Gali Kagzian, Kucha Chah Telian etc. In all these areas and many others non-Muslims were killed not in hundreds, but in thousands.

On the 13th curfew was imposed on the city. This operated as curfew operated everywhere in the Punjab during the 1947 disturbances. The way of non-Muslims trying to escape was blocked. They must either be burnt alive or be shot dead. Many died in either of these two ways. Shops were set on fire in Anarkali and on the Mall.

The famous historic Sikh Gurdwara of Chhevin Padshahi, situated at a distance of fifteen yards from the Police Station on Temple Road in Mozang, was set on fire on the morning of the 15th August. The few Sikhs who were inside the Gurdwara were burnt alive in the flames.

This was one of the numerous places of non-Muslim worship which had been burned in Lahore. Baoli Sahib, Gurdwara Chaumala Sahib and others had been burned before. Even the famous Dehra Sahib, held in highest sanctity by the Sikhs as being the place of martydom of Sri Guru Arjan Dev, fifth Guru of the Sikhs, was attacked. The Sikh guards and priests of this Gurdwara were mostly killed. Such money and valuables as were there, were looted by the Muslim police and military stationed in the Lahore Fort which is at a distance of a few yards from the Gurdwara.

In these days Lahore railway platforms presented the picture of a shambles. Such Hindus and Sikhs as managed to reach the railway station were shot down in heaps. Regular chase was given by the Muslim goondas to the unfortunate men, women and children who tried to escape with their lives.

The destruction of Lahore and of its non-Muslim inhabitants would have been complete but for the presence in the city of Dogra troops, but they were soon shifted from Lahore. It was only in the Cantonment that non-Muslims could find some safety, as Sikh troops were present there.

An account of this destruction is given by the special correspondent of “The Hindustan Times” in these words:

“Complete lawlessness prevailed in the walled city, on the other side of the Circular Road. Starting from Railway Road, running along the circular Road in a remarkable continuity. One could see semi-circle of smoke which persisted throughout this period and has involved the entire old city. Numerous places of worship belonging to Hindus and Sikhs have been burnt, of which one finds no record in the daily papers. Coming to the loss of human lives, I am afraid I cannot put a definite figure. I have a solid example which gives me a pretty good idea of the rate of killings. I have followed these details with scientific leanings On the 13th I happened to visit Mayo Hospital. Outside the mortuary, which must apparently be full, I saw 300 to 350 stiffs, dumped in various lanes leading to the mortuary I waited for the papers next morning wanting to know the figures of killed given by them. I got a pretty good idea when I found them giving the news as 40 killed and 100 injured. I fixed up a scale to calculate the actual casualty figures from those given in the papers. During this period, not a single day passed when we did not see three or four lorry loads of stiffs crossing our house.

“The lawlessness there was so official as you probably would not believe. The military actually helped the murderers. The people trying to escape out of the burning houses were mercilessly shot, and their bodies were roasted. The Lahore Station was for days beyond the reach of Hindus and Sikhs. No ignorant person who left for the Station survived. A Tribune employee staying with us met the same fate. It was a perfect picture of lawlessness. We had the greatest difficulty in escaping out of Lahore, via the Lahore Cantonment Station. In fact that is the only way out for the victims.

“In short, Lahore is the city of the dead and a complete picture of hell. Those in charge of this hell are so perfect in their jobs and carry out the various items of their jobs with efficiency which is unprecedented.”

In dozens of places in Hindu and Sikh houses this kind of action was repeated: A group of Muslims would force open the door of a Hindu or Sikh house, no matter even though the curfew would be on. The men-folk would be led out under the pretence of interrogation by some policeman who would be in the party. Outside the men would be stabbed to death. Then the property would be systematically looted. The women were killed if they happened to be old. The younger women were abducted and raped. In the Mozang area, a Sikh family of six or seven men and as many women met such a fate. The men were led out and killed. The women jumped down from the upper store of their house to escape dishonour. They were seriously injured, though none died. But the experience was widespread.

When freedom dawned on India and Pakistan on the 15th of August, 1947 no one on either side of the border had any heart in the Punjab for joy and celebrations. In New Delhi and Karachi this freedom was inaugurated, but in the Punjab every heart was dejected and sad, owing to news brought by refugees of killings and destruction. The Sikhs everywhere spent the day in prayer and contemplation of the sufferings of their brethern and asking of the Akal Purkh for His Succour for those who were entrapped.

According to a press report on the 13th August 35 fires blazed in Lahore, during the day. The localities seriously affected were Mohalla Sarin, Chowk Surjan Singh, Shahi Mohalla. Mohalla Sathan (inside Bhati Gate), Garhi Shahu, Mozang and Faiz Bagh area,…… in Chowk Surjan Singh, the fire-fighting personnel was fired upon by unknown assailant… Twenty-two persons were killed and 25 injured by fire in Sadar Bazar in the Cantonment. Twenty-two persons were killed and 16 others injured ill knife attacks during the day. Three persons were killed oil the Grand Trunk Road near the Hide Market in the Faiz Bagh area in the morning. Five others were assaulted in the same locality. Three persons were fatally stabbed oil Akram Road in Sultanpura, a suburb of the city. Two more persons were killed in Bharatnagar in the same locality.”

The Hindustan Times summed up the Lahore situation of the same day as:

“Lahore, August 3-Sixty people are reported to have been killed and 100 injured in today’s incidents in and around the walled city. Thirty-five persons were killed in stray assaults in the Mogalpura Railway Workshop and eight injured. About a dozen person were killed in an engagement between the raiders and the inmates of a place of worship near the Fort¹. The police opened fire killing seven and injuring eight.

“Most of the sectors ill the walled city are oil fire and burning fiercely. Huge tongues of fires are visible from Anarkali where 20 shops have been gutted, Empress Road, Shahi Mohalla, Chhota Ravi, the Lower Mall, Kucha Kamboan, Bhaion Ka Maidan and Mohalla Jalotian.

“A serious fire is burning unchecked in Bharat Nagar where a large number of houses have been destroyed. Owing to difficulty in water supply the fire brigade was unable to function in the locality.

“Troops and police fired rounds during the night to scare the rioters. A number of cases of arson have also been reported from the locality and from Badami Bagh and Landa Bazar.

“At 1 P.m. the casualty figure was six killed and 5 injured.

“The situation took a turn for the worse in the afternoon when some workers were attacked in the railway workshops after the lunch interval.

“Two persons were stabbed near Lohari police-Station in the afternoon while another person was attacked in Lange Mandi.

“A mob attacked Singhpura, a suburban part of the city, last night and set fire to houses. The residents opened fire on the miscreants and in the meantime troops reached the spot and returned the fire, killing two persons.

“Two mobs collected in Gobindgarh, a suburb, last night and exchanged fire, resulting in the death of two persons.

“A big building was set on fire in Dabbi Bazar. Huge columns of smoke which have covered the whole city are visible from a distance.

“At 4 P.m. the casualty figure had risen to 41 killed and 18 injured. Three of the dead bore bullet wounds whilst the others were victims of stabbings.

“Two shops were set ablaze in Anarkali in the afternoon. One person was killed on Ravi Road while another was murdered on the Mall near the General Post Office. Another person was assaulted near a cinema house on the Mall.

“Two houses were set on fire in Shah Safdar Mali in Gowalmandi area. The police opened fire to scare away the miscreants.”

About the general behaviour of the Muslim Police during the Punjab Riots a very interesting light is thrown by a part of the proceedings of the Madras Legislative Assembly. On the 11th December, 1947 when questioned by a Muslim member of the House why the recruitment of Muslims to the Madras Special Police had been stopped, the Minister in charge of Law and Order replied that this had been done in view of the behaviour of Muslim Police in disturbances in Northern India. So, even in far-away Madras they were not free from the fear of what the Muslim Police might do in cases of emergency. From this passage alone we can form an idea of the lesson which the whole country had learnt from the open partiality of the Muslim Police in the destruction of non-Muslim life and property from Calcutta (August 1946) to October and November 1947, a period of over fifteen months.

Apart from the City of Lahore, over the entire district the same tale of horror and destruction was repeated. Kasur is an important town on the main line to Delhi which runs from Lahore via Ferozepore.

The countryside of Kasur was predominantly Sikh, though the town itself had a large Muslim majority in the population. When on the 17th August it became known that Kasur was included in Pakistan, the Muslims fell upon non-Muslims. The one way of escape for non-Muslims from Pakistan into India was closed with Kasur being disturbed. There was a large massacre of non-Muslims at the Railway Station. In the city, mohalla after mohalla of Hindus and Sikhs was attacked, and Hindus and Sikhs houses and business premises were set on fire. Hundreds of Sikhs and Hindus were killed inside the city and its outskirts in two days. It was possible for some non-Muslims to escape, as the Indian border of Amritsar district was only a few miles distant on Khem Karan side. Very few could escape towards Ferozepore, as the bridge on the river Sutlej which was on the way, was held by Muslim troops, who shot dead all non-Muslims who approached it. Huge looting of non-Muslim property occurred. Schools, cinema houses, shops, factories, nothing was spared. Curfew was imposed, but as at other places, it only facilitated the task of Muslim goondas. The Hindus and Sikhs could not come out of their houses, and got murdered or surrounded in flames.

Raiwind, in the District of Lahore, is an important Railway junction, as it is the crossing-point of two main lines - the Lahore-Ferozepore-Delhi line and the Lahore-Multan-Karachi line. This place was the point at which trains carrying Hindu-Sikh refugees from Lahore, Montgomery, Multan and Sind used to arrive. Repeated attacks on trains occurred here. Survivors state that when they arrived at Raiwind they saw hundreds of corpses of Sikhs lying all along the railway track. Muslim goondas, police and military seldom let a train pass unattacked if it did not have a strong Hindu-Sikh escort. Especially was this the case up till the middle of September. It is estimated that after August 15, at least a dozen trains were attacked at Raiwind and thousands of Hindus and Sikhs killed. No other Railway Station was the scene of so much carnage. One such train was attacked on the 4th September, in which 300 Hindus and Sikhs were killed.

In the countryside of Lahore the policy, after the 17th August (Announcement of the Award of the Boundary Commission) was to hound out Sikhs and Hindus from their homes en masse. In all these attacks on villages, the police or military or both would generally lead the attack. Little quarter was given to such unfortunate people as got into the clutches of these assailants. Burning of houses, looting of property, murder of men and abduction of women and children - this oft-reported tale was repeated in these village as well. Men and women scurried for their lives like rats. It was with the greatest good fortune that some people managed to escape, sometimes through the help of a personal Muslim friend or through such Indian Military as might have happened to reach the area under attack.

The village of Wanteo was attacked right on the 18th August. In a population of about 2,000 there were only 5 or 6 Hindu and Sikh houses. These were surrounded and the inmates forcibly converted, and asked to swallow beef. On their refusing to do this, a plot was made to kill them. They managed, however, to escape by fleeing.

The village of Killa Ganjan in Chunian Tehsil, was also attacked on the 18th by a Muslim mob of 2,000 which was led by Abdul Karim, a member of the District Board. Hindus and Sikhs offered stiff resistance to the invaders, and had 12 of their side killed. They were forced to leave the village, leaving all their belongings behind them. Some sick, old and maimed people, who were left behind were finished off by the invaders.

The important village of Manihala was attacked on the 20th August under the direction of, the notorious Magistrate M. G. Cheema. Hindus and Sikhs were ordered at 10 p.m. to quit their homes at half an hour’s notice, otherwise fire would be opened on them. The entire Hindu and Sikh population got ready to leave within the stipulated period, and naturally could not carry anything with them. Just outside the village, the Muslims fell upon them, and abducted a large number of women and killed some people.

Jamsher Kalan was attacked on the 24th August by a. Muslim mob accompanied by military. Mohammad Husain, M.L.A. and Sheikh Mohammad Sadiq of Shamkot were at the head of this mob, which was advancing with drums beating. Hindus and Sikhs agreed to vacate the village, but were attacked just on its outskirts. 50 men, 80 women and 70 children were killed out of its total Sikh-Hindu population of 500.

Talwandi was also attacked on the 24th by a Muslim mob and military. This attack too was led by Mohammad Hussain, M.L.A. In this attack more than 400 Hindus and Sikhs were killed. All the surviving women were abducted. Many Hindu and Sikh houses were burnt.

On and about the 26th August, Bhuchoke, Janga Araian, Pajjian etc. were attacked and devastated. Hindu and Sikh residents of 16 villages of this area left for shelter to a larger village, Bhamba. 20 to 25 families were left behind, as they could not move out quickly. These were set upon by the Muslim mob and military and were murdered to a man.

Attack on the village of Gohawa had began already on the 16th August; on the 19th with further police reinforcement sent to the Muslims by the Sub-Inspector of Bhikhi Police Station, the attack assumed full violence. A large-scale massacre of Sikhs ensued. A number of women were abducted. Survivors were very few.

The village of Sangran, in Police Station Khudian area was attacked by 2,500 Muslims supported by the military and Muslim National Guards. Out of a total Sikh population of 200 in this village not more than a dozen are known to have escaped slaughter.

In the village of Ganje Sandh, attacked on the 25th August about 60 Hindus and Sikhs were killed. Dauke Kalan was attacked on the 19th, and here the number of Hindus and Sikhs killed was 200.

Raja Jang is a fairly large village and is also a railway station on the Lahore-Ferozepore-Delhi main line. Man to man, the Muslims of this place had always admitted the superiority of Sikhs. But after the establishment of Pakistan, with police and. military thrown in, the Muslims got their chance. The village was attacked on the 24th August, and the attack continued on the next day as well. Sikhs put up a stiff resistance. 50 Sikhs were killed in the first day’s attack, and many more casualties occurred on the second day. Many Hindus and Sikhs were forcibly converted, and women were abducted.

In village Halloke, on the 21st, 40 Sikhs were killed.

Chhappa and Narwar were attacked on the 19th. Here military operated against the helpless Sikh population. 400 Sikh were killed and 300 were wounded.

Talwandi in Chunian Tehsil was attacked on 8 Bhadon, which is about the end of August. Here the attack was made by beat of drum. Sikhs gave battle to the Muslim mob and military for six hours. Only 40 Sikhs survived from its entire Sikh population.

Padhana is another large village and it was a centre of Sikh influence. The attack came on the 20th in full force, with a mob of 4,000, military and police. The police harassed and insulted Sikhs, and spirited away some Sikhs in their lorries, who have never been heard of since. Sikh women were abducted. Sikhs’ houses and the Gurdwara were burned. About 100 Sikhs were killed and the entire village was looted.

Near the village of Hathar, which was attacked on the 19th August, a huge Muslim mob accompanied by military surrounded the entire population, which was predominantly Sikh, at Jorewala Head while it was evacuating. 1,200 were killed, including women and children. 100 women were abducted and many were forcibly converted and married to Muslims. In the attack on the Gurdwara, the Sikh scripture was desecrated.

On the 18th August, the village of Dholan was surrounded by a mob, led by military and police which also included a Sub-Inspector. The Sub-Inspector gave an ultimatum to Hindus and Sikhs to leave immediately without carrying anything, or all of them would be shot dead. The helpless Hindus and Sikhs complied with this demand. A little outside the village they were attacked, and a large number of them were killed.

Ram Thamman and Jagoowala (Chak No. 40) were attacked on the 24th August. Out of the Hindu and Sikh population of 1,400 of the latter place, only about 50 have been traceable. The rest were all killed in the general massacre.

The important village of Valtoha was attacked in the beginning of September by Pakistan Military. Sikh women and children were abducted. Such of the menfolk as were spared, were turned out of their homes in a destitute state.

In Hindal a large number of Sikhs were shot dead by Pakistan military on the 24th and 25th August. In Jia Bagga, on the Lahore-Ferozepore line, 100 Sikhs and Hindus were killed.

In Prara, immediately after the announcement of the Boundary Commission Award, lynching and murdering of Sikhs began on the 18th August. About 100 Sikhs were killed in Orara; and in the neighbourhood Gurdwaras were desecrated and houses burned and looted.

On the 19th a Hindu-Sikh refugee train was stopped near Railway Station Khudian and a huge massacre of Hindu and Sikhs occurred.

In October 1947, 9 Sikhs prisoners were released from Lahore Cenral Jail. These were pushed out of the jail Gate without any protection or escort. Muslim goondas who had already been apprised of the impending release of these unfortunate Sikhs, pounced upon them as soon as they stepped outside, and all 9 were killed on the spot.

Six Hindus and one Sikh, the last-mentioned a Professor of Sikh National College, Lahore were challaned by the police on a cooked-up charge. All were acquitted by the Magistrate, and ordered to be released. The same tale was repeated here. Muslims waiting outside the Court fell upon them and killed all seven within the area of the District Courts. This occurred on the 26th August.

On the 13th August a Muslim mob fell upon the. Lahore Loco Workshop, and killed such of the helpless Hindus as were still there.

Muslim leaders deliberately spread false and baseless atrocity stories about East Punjab, and incited Muslims everywhere to murder and drive out Hindus and Sikhs. Especially was Pakistan propaganda openly and shamelessly directed against Sikhs. Zafar Ali Khan, proprietor of the Daily Zamindar of Lahore is a well-known Muslim League leader, and his paper an important League organ. On the 5th September in this paper appeared on the front page a highly inflammatory poem against the Sikhs, the last and telling line of which was:

“Koi Sikh rehne na pae Maghribi Punjab men” (Let no Sikh be allowed to remain in Western Punjab). That this was no isolated or irresponsible piece of political propaganda is amply proved by this letter, which passed between no less responsible people, than Sir Francis Mudie, Governor of West Punjab and Mr. Jinnah, Governor-General of Pakistan, on September 5, 1947. That men who run the State and shape policies should have made up their minds to throw Sikhs out of West Punjab, is ample proof of the solid conspiracy in Pakistan against the Sikhs. If the Governor and Governor-General thought this way, what hope of protection could Sikhs have from the officials? What was there to stop common Muslims from looting, murdering and dishonouring them?

The salient paragraphs from Sir Francis Mudie’s letter to Mr. Jinnah, mentioned above are:

“The refugee problem is assuming gigantic proportions. The only limit that I can see to it is that set by the census reports. According to reports the movement across the border runs into a lakh or so a day. At Chuharkana in the Sheikhupura district I saw between 1 lakh and a lakh and half of Sikhs collected in the town and round it, in the houses, on roofs and everywhere. It was exactly like the Magh Mela in Allahabad. It will take 45 trains to move them, even at 4,000 people per train: or, if they are to stay there, they will have to be given 50 tons of at a day. At Gowindgarh in the same district there was a collection of 30,000 or 40,000 Mazbi Sikhs with arms. They refused even to talk to the Deputy Commissioner, an Anglo-Indian, who advanced with a flag of truce. They shot at him and missed. Finally arrangements were made to evacuate the lot. I am telling every one that I do not care how the Sikhs are got rid of as soon as possible. There is still little sign of the 3 lakh Sikhs in Lyallpur moving, but in the end they too will have to go.”

Footnotes:

 
 ^ contents ^ 

In the history of the Muslim League War on the Hindus and Sikhs of the Punjab in 1947, Amritsar occupies an outstanding position. It was in this city, along with Lahore, though with an intensity even greater than in the latter town, that the most sustained war, lasting for over five months was waged on the Hindus and Sikhs, especially the latter, by the Amritsar Muslims. In the scheme of the Muslim League, Amritsar appears to have been Theatre of War No. 1. On the degree of success achieved in Amritsar would depend the League measure of success in cowing down the minorities in the Punjab and the prospect of the establishment of Pakistan. While in Lahore the Muslim population was quite a large majority, in Amritsar it was almost balanced by the Hindus and Sikhs combined. Amritsar was the spiritual capital of the Sikhs, and Sikh history is full of wars waged by Sikhs in the pre-Ranjit Singh Era for the recovery of Amritsar from the hands of Muslims who desecrated the holy Hari Mandir (the Golden Temple of, later days) and filled the sacred Tank with sand. The Muslim League knew that Sikhs might be uprooted and even exterminated in Rawalpindi and the West, they might be driven out of Lahore, but they would make a determined, last-ditch stand in Amritsar. To surrender Amritsar to the Muslims would mean practically the writing off of Sikh history and admitting a status inferior to that of the Muslims in the Punjab - a status, in view of the past record and declared ambitions and methods of the Muslim League, of serfdom. To break the Sikh resistance and morale in Amritsar was, therefore, of the first importance. And it was in Amritsar that the League poured all its strength and resources. It, was in Amritsar again that the Sikhs staked their lives during the long months of agony and unequal fighting from March to August, 1947. Amritsar, to use a not inappropriate parallel, became a kind of Stalingrad of this Muslim League-Sikh War. The Sikhs did live it through. They ‘took it’ as London did in 1940 and 1941, or as Stalingrad did till 1944. And then the tide turned. The Sikhs successfully stood the Muslim onslaught for four months or more. And with the approach of August 15, the Muslims fearing the inevitable counter-attack on the part of the Hindus and Sikhs, rendered inevitable in this case by the accumulated sufferings and helplessness, hate and anger of months of destruction in Amritsar, Lahore, Multan, Rawalpindi, the Frontier Province and other places, lied Amritsar in panic. It was a wonderful sight to see how within the space of a day and a night, almost no Muslim was to be seen in Amritsar when freedom dawned on August 15, expecting those who had entrenched themselves in the notorious area of Sharifpura, expecting what they knew to be well-deserved punishment for brutal and inhuman crimes against their fellow-men.

Such is the character of the story of Amritsar, which opened in the afternoon of March 5. Even during the days of the Muslim League agitation Amritsar had been the scene of the most hectic violence seen anywhere in the Punjab. It was here that the League agitators several times attacked the police and officials, raided the courts and murdered a helpless Sikh police constable, who was stranded in their midst. Most of the train hold-ups during the League agitation period occurred in Amritsar. The Muslims of Amritsar were undoubtedly a very formidably well-organized Community and strategically well-situated to wage a relentless and even successful war against Hindus and Sikhs. Mat ultimately carried the latter through, was the dogged tenacity of the Sikh character, which has never taken defeat, even after heavy losses, as these undoubtedly were in Amritsar. To understand the nature of the ‘War’ in Amritsar, and the relative strength of the Muslims, a few factors may be noticed, as given below:

(1) Out of the total Hindu-Muslim-Sikh population of Amritsar (376,824) Muslims were as many as 184,055 that is, nearly half. The Hindus were roughly 1,34,000 and Sikhs 58,769. So, in point of numbers the Muslims had great advantage and were a solid, well-knit community.

(2) In Amritsar the Muslim National Guards Organization was the strongest anywhere in the Punjab. This organisation, according to reports received by the authorities, had a membership of over 8,000 when the ‘war’ started in March. Later on recruitment to it proceeded apace in every Muslim ward and mohalla. Working hand in hand with the National Guard, were two other well-equipped Muslim organizations, the Khaksars and the Ahrars. The former of the two had a long record of secret violent training and activity. The Muslim National Guards. Headquarters were shifted from Lahore to Amritsar in March, as Amritsar was the most important front on which the League had to fight.

(3) The Muslim localities were situated in a ring quite deep all around the town of Amritsar. Hindu and Sikh areas were in the interior of the circle, and once the Muslims decided to close in upon these areas and shut egress and ingress into the city, Hindus and Sikhs were shut in and cut off from the rest of the world. Excepting an opening through Sultanwind Gate, which is away from the Railway Station, the Courts, Civil Hospital, Telegraph Office etc. there was no opening in the deep Muslim belt through which any Hindu or Sikh could come out without running the gauntlet of large and well-posted Muslim mobs, ever ready with their murder squads. A very large number of casualties among Hindus and Sikhs occurred round the city walls.

(4) Proportion of Muslims in the regular and additional police force in the Punjab, as has been pointed out, was everywhere very heavy, that is, over 70%. So was the proportion of officials in the Civil list. These two classes of Government employees could and did make all the difference for the peace and safety of an area. A separate and detailed study is needed to assess the true role of the Muslim police and officials in riots in Bengal and in the Punjab, especially the latter. Majorities no doubt tell in such a total warfare as the Punjab Muslim League attacks of 1947, but even the majority in population without the collusion of the police and officials cannot inflict such losses as those sustained by Hindus and Sikhs in the Western districts of the Punjab. And in a place like Amritsar, where the two sides were balanced in population, without the police and officials working ‘all out’ for one side, Hindus and Sikhs could not have been held at bay by Muslims for so many months. Most of the Hindu and Sikh policemen were posted in the Southern and Eastern districts of the Punjab, in which the majority in population was Hindu and/or Sikh. In Amritsar as in Lahore one might rarely come across a Hindu or Sikh policeman, else all the force was Muslim. The Muslim police helped Muslims to collect arms both lethal and firearms and ammunition. Smuggling was done in collusion with the Muslim police who were posted on all strategic points. Storage of arms and petrol, the latter for purposes of quick arson, was done in houses and buildings which were protected from detection by the Muslim police. Again, the operation of the curfew was made to work in favour of the Muslim assailants and to the detriment of the Hindus and Sikhs who might want to protect their houses from burning. Muslim goondas or even Muslim policemen set fire to Hindu and Sikh houses during curfew hours, and no Hindu or Sikh was allowed, on pain of being shot, to come out of his house to fight the fire. This happened both in Lahore and Amritsar. The police stood guard while Muslims broke open Hindu and Sikh houses and shops and carted away the loot, at great leisure. The dumps for such looted property were known to and guarded by the Muslim police. The police went shares with the looters. Hindu and Sikh officers were generally held under terror by Muslim policemen, and in some cases were attacked, or not protected when attacked by Muslim mobs, as in Amritsar, Dera Ismail Khan and other places. Sometimes rifles and rounds were supplied by Muslim policemen to Muslim mobs. Muslim policemen went about in lorries and jeeps sniping at Hindus and Sikhs, and in several cases asking men to come out of their houses on some pretext and then shooting them dead. This happened in a number of cases in Amritsar, and in other places.

(5) Muslim Government servants other than the police behaved in the same partisan manner, and in collusion with the Muslim Leaguers. Muslim doctors in the Civil Hospital would not attend to Hindu and Sikh injured. Muslim telephone operators, who almost had the monopoly of the Department in Amritsar, cut off Hindu and Sikh telephone connections and tapped their lines and made secrecy of communication among Hindus and Sikhs impossible.

(6) Muslim colleges and schools, especially the M. A.-O. College at Amritsar, the houses and mills of Muslims notables, such as Sheikh Sadic Hassan, President of the Amritsar District Muslim League, were regular arsenals and planning and operating centres in the war on Hindus and Sikhs.

(7) Large stores of brickbats were collected by Muslims in their houses, for their fight against Hindus and Sikhs. They would shower brickbats mercilessly on Hindus and Sikhs from the roofs of their houses. The Muslims themselves were mostly steel-helmeted, and so could even sally out on Hindus and Sikhs, while Hindus and Sikhs, being unprovided with any such defence, got serious and even fatal injuries from these brickbat showers.

(8) The Muslims’ methods of arson were skilled. In arson there were always two men - one who sprinkled petrol and the other who lit the match. This was a ‘safe’ method. When non-Muslims retaliated, both processes that is, of sprinkling petrol and lighting the match were entrusted to the same man. This man invariably got burnt. It was long after that non-Muslims realised the nature of the Muslim technique of arson and learnt to do the thing efficiently as the Muslim ‘army’ of the League had no doubt learnt by forethought long before the thing was taken up in real earnest.

(9) On the 5th March, when the attack opened, the Muslims attacked only such Hindu-Sikh areas as were mostly surrounded by heavy Muslim zones, such as Sattowali Gali, Gokal New Abadi in Kila Bhangian, Deviwali Gali, Chhaju Misr’s Gali, Islamabad, Hall Bazar etc. All this shows pre-planning.

(10) Attacks on Hindus and Sikhs were made by Muslims in Muslim National Guards’ uniforms, wearing steel helmets on their heads.

The attack opens:

The Muslims of Amritsar began preparations for the attack on Hindus and Sikhs on the 4th March, the day on which the Hindu-Sikh students’ procession was fired on by the Muslim police, and Muslim mobs and assassins had taken a good number of Hindu and Sikh lives in Lahore. The Sikhs and Hindus on the 4th evening held a public meeting in Amritsar, in which the resolve not to tolerate a communal ministry in the Punjab was reiterated. These speeches were interpreted by the Muslim League as a challenge to their design of establishing Pakistan, of which the Punjab was to be the ‘corner-stone’. So, they tried to beat down the Hindu-Sikh, especially Sikh, opposition in Amritsar, the city in which a defeat of the Sikhs would mean breaking their morale. Amritsar was rightly selected from the League view-point as the place on which the entire energy of the League must be concentrated. Defeat and rout the Sikhs in Amritsar, and they will not fight elsewhere, at least not anywhere very near - that was how the League tacticians argued.

Nothing happened on the 4th, however, although the atmosphere was tense. Hindus and Sikhs did not expect that a general mass attack would be made on them. So, they were nowhere prepared even to save their own lives in the event of a sudden attack. Everywhere they were taken by surprise, and lost heavily in life and property. The Muslims, on the other hand, were fully prepared for a large-scale offensive, big enough to surround the entire city and destroy Hindu-Sikh localities and force the inhabitants out and finish them off. Arms and petrol were stored in large quantities by Muslims. They had organised squads for committing arson, for looting, for stabbing and for general attacks and sorties. Among the proceedings of the Executive Committee of the Amritsar Muslim League, held on the 3rd March, 1947, two days before the attacks started and at a time when no Hindu or Sikh could imagine there would be any emergency, this body appointed a sub-committee for first aid to the injured and maintenance of an Ambulance Unit. This provision means clearly that they were preparing ahead for the fight which, they knew was coming, for it were they themselves who were to make it when the time was opportune. A Sikh lawyer, who was going to attend court on the morning of the 5th March, noticed a great rush at Muslim sword-shops, where swords were being distributed free to Muslims. Hindus and Sikhs did not take warning from this very clear action. They probably thought there would be sabre-rattling but not actual fighting, with the result that on the 5th, the opening day of attack and on the two subsequent terrible days, Sikhs and Hindus had nowhere any arms or other means of defence. In Darbar Sahib, the holy of holiest of Sikh faith, which in the case of a general attack by Muslims would be one of the first targets of Muslim attack, as it actually would have been but for the morale of the few Sikhs who took it upon themselves to defend the holy place, there were about only two dozen sewadars or attendants employed by the Committee managing the shrine and its precincts. These two dozen men had swords on them, as they always had as a symbol of their being Sikhs. There were some thousand defenceless Sikh pilgrims, including women and children, who would be a problem rather than help in the defence of the holy place. There were four old and rusted twelve-bore guns and a small stock of cartridges in the place, but no one present knew how to use them. Khalsa College, the premier Sikh institution did not have even ten swords on that day, and no firearms. It was open to attack from all sides, and a large population of young students, teachers and their families were residing on its premises. The same was true of the Shahid Sikh Missionary College. And this was true of all Hindu and Sikh mohallas and areas-utter defencelessness. No one was prepared for defence, for no one naturally knew the designs and plans of the Muslim League.

Muslim Government servants with the exception of the police, were almost wholly absent from their places of work on the 5th March. Especially was this true of the Muslims in the Rationing Department, as they knew better than others the location of Hindu and Sikh houses which were to be burned.

They were, instead, by information passed round among Muslims, keeping out of harm’s way or even joining in the plan for attack in their respective areas. Hindus and Sikhs did not know, very naturally, of what was going to happen, and so by the afternoon they got stuck up wherever they were - in their offices, at the Railway Station, in the Golden Temple or other holy places etc. These marooned people in most cases could not reach their houses and families right up till the 11th March, the day on which the curfew was for the first time relaxed after being imposed on the 7th.

During the day on the 5th March, a group of three or four Sikhs on behalf of the Shiromani Akali Dal went about Amritsar announcing the holding of a public meeting that very evening to protest against the design of the Muslim League to establish Pakistan in the Punjab. So little did the Sikhs expect an attack or general attack on that day. This group was attacked by Muslims with a storm of brickbats in Chowk Moni and one Sikh, Bhai Mangal Singh by name, was done to death. The news of this brutal act spread throughout the town, and Hindus and Sikhs apprehending trouble, began to close their shops. But traffic to and from the Railway Station was still continuing. In the meantime, without any provocation being given by any Hindu or Sikh, Muslim goondas in thousands collected in all parts of the City, especially in the outskirts, near the approaches to which areas the Muslims had an overwhelmingly large population. The collecting of Muslim parties and mobs all over the town and up till a great depth from all approaches practically closed the town to those who were outside it and made it impossible for those inside it to get out. Hall Bazar, the main business centre of the City and the most important approach to and from the Railway Station and the Golden Temple, was full on both sides of large armed Muslim mobs. Hindus and Sikhs, unsuspecting any developments and incidents were going about the town, when at a signal at about 4 o’clock a general attack by the Muslim in all parts of the town began. Hindus and Sikhs found in Hall Bazar, whether in tongas or going on foot or at their shops, were attacked and done to death. One of the victims of these attacks, Mohan Singh, was a student of the Khalsa College, who along with another student got caught in a Muslim mob in Hall Bazar. One of the boys escaped with a hurt; the other was killed on the spot. In this first attack a large number of Hindus and Sikhs, especially the latter, were killed. By five o’clock dozens of Sikh dead were brought to the Government mortuary, but many never got traced. Hindus and Sikhs were marooned wherever they were. Telephones were somehow not functioning at this time; the Muslim operators had disconnected Hindu and Sikh lines.

The Muslims now turned to general destruction of Hindus and Sikhs. In Hall Bazar, almost all the shops were the property of Hindus and Sikhs, and it was a prosperous business centre. The surrounding population was almost entirely Muslim. This bazar was looted fearlessly and on a large scale by Muslim mobs. A large number of shops after being looted were burned. Muslims would come out in parties from Khair Din’s Mosque situated in the middle of the bazar and the M. A.-O. College, distant about half a furlong on a side. The police were just doing nothing. The City Kotwali is where the Hall Bazar ends. Within five minutes the police could be on the scene of the looting even at the other end of the fine Bazar. But the looting continued throughout the afternoon and the night, uninterrupted. Booty literally worth millions was carried away. So leisurely and assured was the conduct of the looting Muslim mob that in some cases they did not even care to take the trouble to break open the locks of the shops. All that was done was to remove a plank of the outer door, to scop a kind of manhole and to remove loot out of that. Such a thing was possible only because there was a plan behind all that was happening, and those engaged in looting knew that the police would not come, as it actually did not.¹

A large number of Sikhs killed at this time were Sikh factory workers who left work at 5 o’clock when they used to be let off, and set out for their homes, unaware of the general Muslim attack. As they approached the City gates such as Hathi Gate, Hall Bazar, Mahan Sigh Gate or Ghee Mandi Gate, they were surrounded and done to death. Another class of Sikhs who lost heavily in these first days were the Sikh milkmen who used to carry the milk-supply of the town from the neighbouring villages. They were killed on the 5th and 6th March; and by the 6th morning, 18 dead bodies of these men had been carried to the mortuary. The total number of milkmen killed must have been very much larger, for the Muslims generally threw the dead bodies into the burning houses or otherwise disposed them of.

On the 5th March in Amritsar, there was no Government, no law and order. No one’s life was safe. On all sides was killing, burning and looting. People suddenly woke up from the notions of safety and security to which they had grown accustomed during the days of British rule. Now on all sides there was complete lawlessness. The police were not merely neutral in this, but were planning for, leading and aiding the Muslim aggressors. The Muslims burnt and looted whatever area they pleased - the only thing to stop them being possible effective Hindu-Sikh resistance, which on these two days and for months after was not organised. Not Darbar Sahib itself, not any of the Gurdwaras was safe at this time. The Muslims had planned an all-out offensive, and were carrying it out very successfully. No one in the whole city ate anything on this night; no one slept a wink. The whole town was ringing with the yells of the attacking Muslims and the defiant shouts of Hindus and Sikhs. Flames were rising and tall buildings were gutted with huge fires.

The dead bodies in the Civil Hospital brought on the 5th March were seven in number; 6 Sikhs and one unidentified as Hindu or Muslim. Among these six Sikhs killed was Mohan Singh, a student of the Khalsa College, whose murder has been mentioned elsewhere. This circumstance will show more than anything else that the Muslims were aggressors in Amritsar, and they remained so for months. Figures of casualties given later on will amply prove this.

During the night, the Hindu and Sikh quarters got hell. Parties of Muslims would go about shouting Pakistan and Islamic slogans, setting fire to Hindu and Sikh houses. The method adopted for setting fire showed planning, skill and long preparation. Petrol would be sprinkled over buildings with a stirrup pump or some other device. Then a burning ball of cloth or cotton was shot over the petrol-soaked surface and he flames left to do the work of destruction. Sometimes a solution of phosphorus was just painted over the door of a shop or house and left to burn of itself within a short time. Hindus and Sikhs trying to escape from flames were lynched by the mob. A large part of Amritsar was reduced to cinders and rubble in the fires of this night and the one following it. If one stood on the top of a high building in the night, red flames could be seen rising high, spread over large areas, lending a terrible and awful glow to the darkness of the night. Hall Bazar, Kara Jaimal Singh and several other localities were almost wholly destroyed.

Attacks on various localities began as the evening fell. Firing from the attackers could be heard all through the night. By the morning thousands of man, women and children whose homes had been burnt or who had been beseiged throughout the night left as refugees to various localities where shelter could be had. Many went to Darbar Sahib and the other sites in its vicinity such as Jallianwala Bagh. Many ran out to the Civil Lines which were comparatively safe. Khalsa College received a few thousand of these hunted people whose homes were attacked.

During the night a Muslim mob tried to attack Krishna Market, one of the largest emporia of cloth in Northern India, which is close to Darbar Sahib, and Darbar Sahib itself. A pitched battle took place on the road between the Queen’s statue and Chowk Fawara. In this battle courage and grit shown by Sikhs and Hindus routed the Muslim assailants, and immediate danger to Darbar Sahib was averted.

Attacks on Sikhs found anywhere became a feature of the Muslim campaign in Amritsar. Any Sikh found anywhere on the road was attacked and killed. A large number of Sikhs coming from the villages around Amritsar, and many pilgrims coming from outside to visit Darbar Sahib were stabbed by Muslim parties lying in ambush.

Many of those killed were Sikh milk-sellers, who carried milk singly or in groups of two or three from villages round about Amritsar into the town. As they had to pass through Muslim localities in order to enter the city, they would be waylaid and done to death. In many cases several Muslims would fall upon a Sikh, snatch his kirpan and butcher him with the kirpan so snatched. So widespread and persistent was the campaign of stabbing that Sikhs were stabbed even at the Railway Station, which was supposed to be a comparatively safe place - one man was stabbed while actually boarding a train; the kirpan of another was snatched. Public servants were not immune from attack while engaged in doing duty. Such dastardly attacks were made by Muslims everywhere in the Punjab on public servants. In Amritsar, one Sikh wireman was murdered while repairing an electric wire connection in a Muslim locality under orders. A Hindu postman was assaulted while on his round. The most serious case of its kind was the attack made by a Muslim mob on a Sikh Assistant Sub-Inspector of Police on duty. This officer was on duty in Hall Bazar with a force of Muslim constables under him. As he was standing, a Muslim mob of about 150 attacked him. The Muslim constables whom he was supposed to command, simply stood and watched their officer being attacked by the mob, who left him for dead. Later, however, this officer recovered from his serious injuries. This is only one evidence of the spirit which actuated the Muslim police in these times.

Attacks on Hindus and Sikhs became more frequent and easier because Hall Bazar, the main thoroughfare leading into the City and to Darbar Sahib, was blocked by the ruins of burned down houses and shops, and anyone coming out and going in had to make a long detour, and pass for about a mile through Muslim areas to reach the Queen’s Statue, the place where the non-Muslim areas began. Hindu and Sikh passersby were almost daily attacked and killed here. It was only when on repeated representations and protests of Hindu and Sikhs, including several from Master Tara Singh, the Hall Bazar was made available for two-way traffic, that these attacks grew fewer. But the police morale was so much deteriorated that the existence of police in those days afforded no protection to any Hindu or Sikh.

One of the most dastardly attacks which sent a thrill of horror through every Hindu and Sikh was the attack on the 6th of March by the Muslims of Sharifpura, a suburb of Amritsar spread for a long distance south of the railway track east-west wise, on Sikhs and Hindus arriving from Pathankot side. The assailants stopped the arriving train by climbing on to the outer signal and raising it. Then the mob, concealed in Muslim houses along the railway track, fell upon the helpless Hindu and Sikh passengers, and murdered a good number, including women and children before the train could be restarted and brought to Amritsar station. Trains and lorries coining from Jullundur and Pathankot and Narowal were similarly attacked by Muslims of this suburb and Sikhs killed with great brutality. Men, women and children were chased like animals and gored to death with spears. This was the first train-attack made anywhere in this conflict, and this kind of thing was repeated by Muslim Leaguers in many places in the subsequent months. This cowardly attack horrified all decent people everywhere.

Besides the Muslim mobs and assassins, Muslim police shot out of hand any Sikh or Hindu they could lay hands on. Muslim police are known to have gone about prowling of a night, to have sometimes called out of their homes Hindus and Sikhs and to have shot them dead on the spot. This practice they called ‘shikar’ and it was a terror for Hindus and Sikhs.

These first March days were a period of extremely great disaster for Hindus and Sikhs, especially the latter, of Amritsar. With houses and shops burnt in large numbers, and with daily imposition of curfew all business was at a standstill. Thousands got unemployed in consequence of this. Thousands were rendered homeless in Amritsar itself, and destitute through destruction of household property. They had to be sheltered and fed. Over and above all this was the problem of looking after the hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing from Muslim terror in the West Punjab. No doubt the community felt it was passing through a life-and-death struggle, and it ‘took it’ with characteristic Sikh calm and courage.

The Muslim police was working with full vigour in implementing its policy of partiality towards Muslims. In the extensive house searches, both in Amritsar town and in the countryside, every semblance of a weapon was taken away from Sikhs - not only spears, but even wood-choppers and knives. Licensed weapons were confiscated so that whole groups of Hindus and Sikhs were left defenceless in time of attack. The Muslims, on the other hand, could import arms and material for making spear-staves, swords, daggers and even pistols. Guns and bombs flowed freely among them. It was only rarely, when a non-Muslim might happen to be on the watch duty that such smuggling might be intercepted. Once a Hindu police-man on duty at Putlighar, on the Grand Trunk Road on the Lahore side of Amritsar, stopped a Muslim-driven truck which was carrying into the town 4,300 lathis. These were obviously intended for making spears. But while this one truck-load got intercepted hundreds such must have passed on to their destination without check. That is why Muslims could make such a terrible blitz against Hindus and Sikhs.

The attack on Sikhs was carried on by the Muslims with such vigour and organisation that the Sikhs suffered heavy casualties during all the months from March to June, and even later. The Muslims continued, with police help, to waylay individual Sikhs and to make mass attacks on them. Their plan for Amritsar City was ambitious. They wanted to keep the City beseiged, to force Hindus and Sikhs out by arson and murder, and finally to capture two places held dear by Sikhs, and wearing a character symbolic of Sikh greatness and pride: Darbar Sahib and Khalsa College. Letters threatening destruction of these two places continued to be received by the authorities of these places from Muslims. In their confidence and feeling of being advantageously situated the Muslims did not mind declaring their plans. That during all these months Sikhs were fighting against superiorly armed and determined attacks is shown by the following official figure of casualties in Amritsar. These figure are, of course, bound to be gross underestimates, but they help to establish the proportions in which casualties were suffered. In almost all cases Sikh casualties are more than Hindu and Muslim casualties put together, or at least many more than of either community. In considering the nature and extent of the Muslim attack, Hindu and Sikh casualties may also be reckoned together.

The moral of all this is very clear:

(a) Sikhs were the victims of a malignant and determined campaign of murder and arson, so that even according to official figures, up till 22.5.47, that is, more than two and a half months after the attack opened on March 5, as many as 174 of them had been killed as against 85 Muslims. The total number of all non-Muslims killed by Muslims during this period is 243.

(b) Sikhs did not attack Muslims anywhere in the areas where the former were in a majority. East Punjab continued to report “quiet” during all this period and till much later.

(c) While Muslims had a plan of subduing and even exterminating the Sikhs, the Sikhs had obviously no such plan. During all these months they suffered heavily everywhere, fought an unequal struggle against the Muslim majority organised for fighting, and the Muslim police and officials in combination.

(d) One other factor which conclusively proves that the Sikhs had not only no intention of attacking Muslims, but did not even have knowledge of any intended attack on the part of Muslims is that on and after the 5th March, a large number of Sikhs had gone on the Hola pilgrimage to Sri Anandpur Sahib, in Hoshiarpur District, and were in fact marooned there on account of the curfew in Amritsar and several other towns. A large number of these Sikh pilgrims had to be escorted by the Patiala State police to Amritsar, Lahore and Gujranwala etc., in lorries provided by the State.

Every nook and corner of Amritsar, which was close to a Muslim area, and where a Muslim mob could gather conveniently or a few assassins hide or lurk, was a place of death for any Sikh found in its vicinity. The technique adopted by the Muslim goondas was skilled and well-thought out beforehand. These assailants would generally divide themselves into groups of three, each hiding at a distance of fifteen or twenty yards from the other along a lane or street. While the Hindu or Sikh pedestrian, cyclist or rider in tonga, as the case might happen to be, had been allowed by the first group along the line to pass, the middle group would raise a hue and cry and scare the intended victim. As he ran for life backwards or forwards, he was pounced upon by the group which happened to be nearest to him, and done to death. In this way hundreds got killed in the various Muslim localities, especially along the road leading from Hall Gate to Hathi Gate towards the West, and that leading from Hall Gate out through Rambagh, Mahan Singh and Ghee Mandi Gates to Sultanwind, either of which roads the Sikhs and Hindus must take if they were at all to enter the town from the northern side. Burj Baba Phula Singh, a Sikh shrine and kind of abbey, which is situated just outside Mahan Singh Gate, and was surrounded on all sides by large Muslim populations was repeatedly attacked, and several of the Sikh inmates were killed.

In the attack which began on the 5th March three Sikh foot-constables of police were reported missing. Reports daily poured in of Sikhs stabbed, speared or shot dead on the outskirts of the town. Sharifpura, Mahan Singh Gate, Hathi Gate, Bhagtan wala Gate and Chauk Farid were localities especially notorious for this kind of attack on the Sikhs. M. A.-O. College, was a very active centre of attack from which Muslim groups sallied out to attack or snipe at Hindus and Sikhs. One cinema house, belonging to a Hindu and situated next door to M. A.-O. College was burned. Hindu and Sikh houses situated on all sides in the vicinity of the M. A.-O College were kept constantly under fire by gunmen from inside this College. A large number of these Hindu-Sikh houses, along with others lying between this place and Chauk Farid were burned.

There is a marked difference in the behaviour of Muslims and Sikhs towards women and children captured during this fight. While Muslims everywhere dishonoured, abducted or murdered Hindu and Sikh women and children, Sikhs never resorted to anything of which they might have reason to be ashamed. On the first day of attack, several Muslims got killed by an infuriated Sikh crowd in a locality which was at the junction of a Muslim and non-Muslim zone, not very far from the centre of the Sikh influence. More than one hundred Muslim women and children, whose menfolk had either been killed or had run away for safety, fell into the hands of the Sikhs. Sikhs kept them safe and fed them for the two or three days that the fighting lasted and all communications in the town were cut off, and later sent them under escort to the City Police Station, These women acknowledged the chivalry and courtesy of the treatment of the Sikhs towards them.

The first round of the attack was over after the curfew partly lifted on the 11th March. The sight which was revealed to passersby and onlookers was truly terrible and pitiful. In various parts of the city huge mountains of debris and rubble were lying, blocking roads and bazars. Burnt, demolished buildings, with holes for doors and windows gaping out of damaged walls told a tale of utter and stark brutality. Merchandise and household property worth so many millions had been destroyed by fire, and some was buried under debris, which must have also killed many human beings while falling. This scene of destruction and desolation elicited from Pandit Nehru, who visited the city in March, the remark that Amritsar looked like a bomb-scarred city. The experience, thought Hindus and Sikhs, must have chastened the Muslims and made them realize the folly of a fight in which fire destroyed the neighbouring Muslim houses and shops as much as the Hindu, and in which some at least of the Muslims, no doubt as innocent as the Hindu and Sikh victims of assassination, must have lost their lives. But the Muslims were thinking in no such way. They looked upon this first fight only as one major test of success of their methods and preparedness and the perfect co-ordination of all wings of their forces-the Muslim National Guards, the mobs, the police and officials. So, they were on the look-out for a repetition of this first attack and for winning more ‘victories’ over Hindus and Sikhs.

Muslims made repeated attempts at saying prayers in the burnt Pragdas Chowk Mosque. This place is situated in the midst of Sikh-Hindu localities, though on one side it had easy approach to a vast stretch of Muslim-inhabited area, ending in Gilwali Gate. To have attempted to lead a Muslim congregation, which was bound to he well-armed, defiant and shouting ‘slogans’, was really an attempt at mischief. In those times when passions were running high, when hundreds of Sikh Gurdwaras had been burned down in Rawalpindi and Western Punjab and not a word of regret or condemnation for such acts had emanated from any Muslim Leaguer, to have tried to lead a prayer-gathering in Chowk Pragdas was both an insult to Sikhs and a calculated attempt at mischief. Sikhs opposed such a move. But the European Deputy Commissioner permitted that every Friday a limited number of Muslims say their noon prayer in Pragdas Chowk under heavy police protection. On April 11, which was again a Friday, a large Muslim crowd estimated at 4,000 to 5,000 came to Chowk Pragdas with the ostensible purpose of saying prayers. But they were well-armed and were shouting slogans vowing to take revenge for the Muslims who had been killed in Chowk Pragdas in the early days of the attack. This naturally hurt the Sikhs. But, although provoked, Sikhs did not do anything which might lead to unpleasant occurrences. And the prayers were done peacefully. But after the prayers were over, some of the returning Muslims attacked some Sikhs. At this some Sikhs in return attacked some Muslims and rioting again started in Amritsar on April 11, after being suspended for about a month, though during this interval stabbing had continued. The Muslim crowd got out of the control of the Police, a large part of which was naturally not too conscientious about checking its activities. Muslims murdered Sikhs and set fire to Hindu and Sikh houses in several areas, including Chowk Lachhmansar, Qila Bhangian, Chauk Chira and Hall Bazar. Extensive damage was done by these fires, and the tall pillars of smoke could be seen from as far as Chheharta which is more than five miles from Amritsar.

There had been a comparative lull for sometime in the campaign of stabbing Hindus and Sikhs in the later part of March and early April. But after the Chowk Pragdas incident of April 11 narrated above, this stabbing campaign was intensified. Arson too began to be on the increase. No day went without the report of some Hindus and Sikhs being stabbed or shot dead, mostly by the hired Muslim assassins and sometimes even by the police. Hindus and Sikhs got killed in varying circumstances. They were sometimes killed while trying to extinguish fire in their own houses. If they fought Muslim assailants in self-defence, more often than not they were shot dead by the police, which always intervened on behalf of the Muslims. If not killed, Hindus and Sikhs fighting in self-defence would be arrested, while the Muslim aggressors were let off.² As shown above, the death-roll of Hindus and Sikhs continued to be very high. Sikhs got killed in larger numbers than Muslims and Hindus combined.

Incidents typical of what was happening in Amritsar in April and after are given below:-

(1) The grinding mill of a Sikh was gutted by a Muslim mob on 11.4.47. On this same day one Sikh was fired on by the police for no cause whatever.

(2) Two Sikhs were surrounded by a group of Muslims near Bhagtawanwala Gate and their kirpans were seized. The Sikhs escaped by running away.

(3) The car of Sardar Ishar Singh Majhail, a prominent Sikh leader, and later Minister of the East Punjab was surrounded by a Muslim mob, and he was saved only by the skill of his driver.

(4) On 2.5.47 one Sikh was stabbed outside Hakiman Gate.

(5) One Sikh, Sohan Singh was brutally murdered while going on bicycle near Chauk Farid.

(6) Two Sikhs were murdered by being shot near Rego Bridge, which is on the Grand Trunk Road, close to the Railway Station.

(7) On 21-5-47 one. Sikh was found murdered in Gol Bagh between Baijnath High School and the Railway Footbridge. On this day also were set on fire 7 Hindu and Sikh shops inside Hall Gate and several houses inside Mahan Singh Gate and Gali Lahorianwali in Katra Karam Singh. One Sikh was murdered on the Mall, and two Sikhs were assaulted and chased in the same locality.

(8) On 24.5.47 one Sikh who had gone towards Anjuman Park to buy vegetables was murdered. One Sikh was stabbed in the middle of Hall Bazar near Chartered Bank while a Muslim police constable, No. 132, was looking on. One Hindu was murdered near Hall Bazar, and two others were shot dead near Ganj-di-Mori by Muslims, while extinguishing the fire in their houses. Two Hindus were shot dead in similar circumstances in Gali Nain Sukh. Eighteen Hindus received serious injuries in two places where fire was set to Hindu houses. In these places members of the family of Sheikh Sadiq Hassan, President of the District Muslim League of Amritsar, were leading the attack.

(9) On 26.5.47 one Muslim Sub-Inspector of Police chased a Hindu from Islamabad Railway Crossing to Khalsa College, and repeatedly fired on him with a revolver. This crossing and all other crossings and junctions of roads were guarded by Muslim Police, who shot dead any Hindu or Sikh they could lay hands on.

(10) Sikhs murdered in different localities in the beginning of May, 1947 were: 9 outside Bhagtanwala Gate, near the brick klin; 7 in Daimganj; 30 outside Rambagh Gate; 12 outside Sharifpura, and a large number in the Muslim abadis of Maqbulpura and Rasulpura.

(11) The Grand Trunk Road between village Vallah and the Canal to the city was absolutely closed to Hindus and Sikhs, who inevitably got murdered if found there. Hundreds of Muslims, however, freely moved about in these areas. Muslims could also move about near Hindu and Sikh areas, but not vice versa.

(12) One Sikh Bal Singh of village Mulachak was killed by Muslims on 25. 5. 47 near the canal.

(13) Trucks nos. 2410, 1421, 1428 and cars nos. 676 and 3388 regularly went about the roads outside the town with Muslim goondas in them picking off Hindus and Sikhs. Information about this was conveyed by responsible Hindus and Sikhs to the authorities.

(14) On 25. 5. 47 village Mulachak was attacked by 60 Muslims with firearms. Sikhs of the village put up stiff resistance, and the assailants ran away.

(15) On 26-5-47 one Sikh was stabbed in Hall Bazar while going to the police station to give report of arson in his own house. One Hindu was murdered in Chitta Katra.

One of the most shocking and dastardly outrages took place in the Daimganj locality of Amritsar on the 10th May. A party of about a dozen Sikhs and Hindus, including women were going out to cremate the dead body of a child. They passed by the large Muslim locality of Daimganj, close to which is also the Idgah. While these Hindus and Sikhs were returning to their homer after cremating the child, the Muslims who were hiding inside the Idgah, fell upon them, killing seven on the spot. The dead bodies were sought to be made unidentifiable by being soaked in petrol and set ablaze. The smoke attracted the sight of the police force inside the Amritsar Fort, who reached the spot. The authorities imposed a fine of Rs. 20 per male adult Muslim in this entire locality.

This murder was most shocking and brutal, and it shook the conscience of the entire Hindu and Sikh population of the Punjab. Even barbarians respect the sight of death, and none but these offspring of the Muslim League doctrines with unclean minds and souls would have done killing in the circumstances of this incident. It is significant that no Muslim Leaguer uttered a word in condemnation even of this brutal outrage. This incident intensified rioting both in Lahore and Amritsar. Muslims were already adding to the pile of Hindus and Sikhs killed and Hindu and Sikh houses burnt. Now, both in Lahore and Amritsar, Hindus and Sikhs too began reprisals. The Daimganj brutality anyway could not be forgotten. The comments of the Chief Secretary to the Punjab Government of those days, Mr. Akhtar Hussain; are significant:

“Some of the acts committed were shocking in their stark brutality and an attack on a funeral party of a child in which six Sikhs and one Hindu were killed has added to an already overlong list of Muslim atrocities. As a result of these happenings in Amritsar, the situation in Lahore deteriorated a few days later, on the 13th of May, and much damage has been done to life and property. In Amritsar the casualties since communal trouble started in March have been over two hundred killed and twice that number seriously injured. In Lahore over the same period, one hundred and ten persons have lost their, lives and three hundred and seventeen have suffered grave hurt. For the province the death roll exceeds three thousand three hundred while the injured number fourteen hundred.”

The over-all report of the above-named Chief Secretary to the Punjab Government for the month of April and May is:-

“In Amritsar, since a recredescence of trouble took place on the 11th of April, more than four hundred and sixty persons have either been killed or injured, and in Lahore since the 9th day of May, the day on which the new outbreak commenced, there have been three hundred and twenty-five victims of communal strife. The two cities have shown some distinctive features in their disorders and in Lahore stabbings had the place in favour taken by crude bombs in Amritsar. However, both have points in common, the most important of which have been arson and the signs of better organization and greater determination which have emerged.In respect of arson Muslims have been the main culprits and there have been numerous acts of incendiarism in both places resulting in conflagrations which have taxed the available army and civil resources to their utmost limit.”³

The high-ups of the Muslim League were fully alive to the needs of keeping up the ‘morale’ of the Muslims of Amritsar in their fight against Hindus and Sikhs of Amritsar. They constantly visited the city to plan, advise and guide this fight. Sheikh Sadiq Hassan, President of the City Muslim League was directing this entire fight and was maintaining efficient liaison. On the 17th March Sardar Abdur Rab Nishtar, later a Minister in the Pakistan Government,⁴ Begum Shah Nawaz, prominent lady in the Punjab League circles, Sardar Shaukat Hyat Khan, till recently Minister in the West Punjab and Siddiq Ali Khan, Salar-i-Ala of the Muslim National Guards came to Amritsar. On the 25th March Mian Mumtaz Daultana, now President of the West Punjab Muslim League, Mian Iftikharuddin, his predecessor in that office, Maulana Daud Ghaznavi and Mian Amiruddin, League Mayor of Lahore also visited Amritsar. These visits were made ostensibly for the purpose of collecting funds for the relief of such Muslims as might have suffered in the wide-spread campaign of arson which sometimes also involved Muslim houses, but were in reality “pep” things to plan and direct intensification of the Muslim League War. Sheikh Sadiq Hassan, who has been mentioned earlier, visited Tarn Taran, a fairly large town near Amritsar and distributed two bags of steel helmets among members of the Muslim National Guards. On the 26th of April, Dr. Ziaul Islam and Ahmed Said, President and Organizing Secretary respectively of the Punjab Muslim Students’ Federation visited Amritsar. This organization contained zealous League workers, and rowdy elements. It took leading part in the war on Hindus and Sikhs, especially from its headquarters in the M. A.-O. College.

Mian Nasrullah Khan, a member of the Punjab Legislative Assembly, visited several villages of Amritsar District on the 17th May. So far there had been no attacks in the rural areas, but now under the instigation of Mian Nasrullah Khan, such attacks started. On the 22nd May this gentleman again visited several more villages and inspired an abortive Muslim attempt to demolish the Hansali, the water channel which serves as a conduit for the water which is supplied to the sacred tank of Sri Darbar Sahib at Amritsar.

The tempo of the war against Hindus and Sikhs grew very fast as the fateful day of June 3, on which the British Government’s award on the future government of India was to be announced, approached.

While the Punjab Government was endeavouring to take some steps for the maintenance of peace, these efforts were rendered more or less ineffective by the communally biased attitude of the Muslim personnel of the Army, which got infected with this evil by association with the Muslim police. Muslim soldiers on duty invariably acted as the Muslim police had so far done. They connived at Muslim mobs setting fire to the city and murdering Hindus and Sikhs, while they were very prompt to arrest any Hindu or Sikh found in any public place, any pretext serving for such action. Cases of arson which had so far been isolated after the first March days, now began to be widespread; and whole localities, comprising hundreds of houses and shops began to be burnt. Two of the most persistently burnt localities were Chil Mandi and Katra Karam Singh, the former not more than a hundred yards from the headquarters of the city Police and fire-brigade.

Khaiwali Gali, Sattowali Gali and Gali Kandharian were some of those localities which were surrounded by large Muslim populations. In these localities repeated attacks on Hindus and Sikhs were made, and looting and burning on a large scale done. In Katra Karam Singh, which continued to burn for three days, more than two hundred residential houses, sheltering several thousand human beings, were destroyed by fire.

Here is a brief and by no means complete list of Hindu and Sikh property burned near and after June 3, when it might be expected that in view of their Pakistan demand being conceded, the Muslims would give up aggression and settle down to have peaceful relations with Hindus and Sikhs. But no such thing happened. On the 2nd June there was widespread burning of Hindu and Sikh localities. Katra Karam Singh, Kucha Beli Ram, Kucha Khotian, Katra Sher Sinoh and Tunda Talab etc. were some of the localities which were burned extensively.

On the 7th June, a Sikh’s house in Katra Bhabrian was burned, and also a Hindu’s house in Chuhar Beri.

On the 8th a Hindu textile factory situated inside Lohgarh Gate was burned, and on the 11th, the Parkash textile factory, which was situated near the M. A.-O. College. The Cinema house situated in this locality had been burned previously.

On the 13th, a Hindu’s textile factory near the Power House was burned, and fire was set to the D.A.-V. Middle School in Toba Bhai Salo on the 14th June.

On the 24th, 26th, 27th, 28th and 30th June large-scale arson in Hindu and Sikh houses occurred in Katra Sher Singh Kohna, Chauk Telian, Ghee Mandi, Katra Karam Singh, Bazar Bakarwanan and in Chauk Jaura.

On the 24th June on a search these arms were recovered from a mosque in Katra Bagh Singh in Amritsar:-

9 spears, 3 hatchets, 4 gallons of incendiary spirit, 2 gallons of kerosene oil, 1 gallon of methylated spirit and some helmets. This was by no means an isolated instance of Muslims keeping weapons and means of fire-raising in large quantities or of their using places of worship as arsenals.

On the 1st July a Hindu’s textile factory inside Lahori Gate was burned, and a bomb was thrown into a Hindu’s house.

On the 3rd July Hindus’ houses in Katra Bagh Singh were burned with kerosene oil.

On the 7th July a Hindu’s textile factory on the Batala Road was set on fire.

On the 31st July the Eduljee Ice Factory situated on the Grand Trunk Road, off a Muslim locality was set on fire.

Right into August, till only a few days before the establishment of free India and free Pakistan the Muslims continued to be aggressors in Amritsar. Bomb-throwing on Hindus and Sikhs was frequently indulged into by Muslims.

On the 23rd July a bomb was thrown on Hindu-Sikh houses on Hukam Singh Road. On the next day 3 Sikhs were attacked by Muslims near cattle-fair ground, and 2 of these were killed.

On the 27th July, several. Sikhs were murdered on the Sultanwind Road.

On the 31st July a bomb was thrown in the Hall Bazar on a tonga carrying Hindus and Sikhs. On the next day another tonga was destroyed by a bomb, and its Hindu occupants killed. On the same day one Hindu was killed in Katra Bagh Singh, one Sikh was murdered in Hall Bazar and Hindus and Sikhs were stabbed inside Sikandar Gali and Lohgarh Gate.

On the 4th August a Hindu was shot dead inside Lohgarh Gate, two Sikhs were shot dead near Burj Phula Singh, off a heavily populated Muslim area, and another in Hall Bazar, in Chauk Ghulam Hussain.

The war was getting intensified. 1,000 Muslims attacked the village of Dhapai near Amritsar. A Sikh was injured by a bomb near Khasa.

On the 9th August the police arrested a Pathan, named Mohammad Saeed, near the Railway Tonga Stand, when he was lying in ambush to murder any stray Hindu or Sikh.

On the 11th August, one Sikh and 2 Hindu were injured near Khuh Bombaywala; one Sikh was shot dead by a Muslim constable. 12 Muslims were arrested while assembling for an attack on Hindus and Sikhs. One gun and several spears were recovered from these.

On the 14th August, the Muslims celebrated establishment of Pakistan by setting fire to Hindu and Sikh buildings in Chauk Fawara, Chil Mandi, Kot Atma Singh, Chauk Phullanwala, and handloom factories on the Grand Trunk Road and in Chauk Fawara. Attacks on trains by Muslims outside Bhagtanwala Gate, their stronghold, frequently occurred.

As a result of the Muslim campaign of arson, from the 5th March onwards, more than one-fourth of the city of Amritsar has been laid in ruins - the worst sufferer in this respect among the cities of the Punjab.

Footnotes:

 
 ^ contents ^ 

Sheikhupura is the district next to Lahore on the Western side. Just three miles out of Lahore, after crossing the River Ravi, one enters the boundary of this district. This district contains Nankana Sahib, the birthplace of Sri Guru Nanak Dev, and the huge estate attached to this Gurdwara which before partition yielded a revenue of about twenty lakh rupees annually to the Sikh people. Most of the proprietors of land in this district were Sikhs who had fine lands and had made them rich and productive by lavishing on this land such hard labour as only the Sikh agriculturist appears to be capable of. Besides, the urban Hindu and Sikh population of this district had industrial enterprise and had set up business houses, factories and works. Sikhs and Hindus were, however, in a minority in this district, the population proportions being:-

Sheikhupura Hindus and Sikhs were perhaps, after Rawalpindi and Multan, the worst sufferers at the hands of the Pakistani fanaticism and cold-blooded murderous frenzy. The blow fell on them suddenly and swifly-leaving between 10,000 and 20,000 of them dead in two days. The conspiracy that was hatched in Sheikhupura between the Muslim Leaguers, the Civil Officers, Police and Military for the extermination of Hindus and Sikhs of this town and the district governed by it, is perhaps the worst on human record, showing calculated devilry on such a large scale.

No incidents had occurred in Sheikhupura of any considerable nature, in spite, of all that happened since March, 1947 in Rawalpindi and Multan, Lahore, Amritsar and Gujranwala. This continued up till the day the Award of the Boundary Commission was announced, that is, August 17. Till that day there had been speculations as to which side would the part of Sheikhupura in which Nankana Sahib was situated, would go. Also, some people speculated that the ‘other factors’ clause in the terms of reference of the Boundary Commission might mean for example, Sikh landed interests on the basis of which Sheikhupura or a part of it might be awarded to India. So, during the period of indecision the Muslim League trouble-makers of this district were quiet, and were in a way sitting on the fence.

As soon as the Award of the Boundary Commission was announced and they knew that Sheikhupura had been awarded to Pakistan, the Muslim Leaguers and their allies, the Pakistan Police and Military, feverishly began to perfect and execute their plans for the looting and murdering of Hindus and Sikhs. Attacks on the countryside began as early as the 18th August; and within a week Sikhs and Hindus everywhere in villages, as will be seen from the appendix of incidents at the end, were being driven out en masse. During this time the plan was also made by which Sheikhupura town and other towns in the district were also to be cleared of Hindus and Sikhs.

The conspiracy began on about the 10th of August, when a public meeting of Muslims was called in cattle-fair grounds, ostensibly for the purpose of saying prayers for rains, which had that year been rather scarce. At this meeting, which naturally no non-Muslim could attend, the “plan” for attack on Hindus and Sikhs was explained to the Muslims. Muslims were very reticent about this meeting to their Hindu and Sikh friends and acquaintances. After this meeting, Muslim E. A. C.’s and other officials ceased attending the official club of which they were members. They instead held secret meetings, along with big Police Officers and Karamat Ali, a minister in the West Punjab Government and a resident of Sheikhupura. A confidential list was prepared of all leading Hindus and Sikhs of Sheikhupura, which was accidentally revealed by the Christian stenographer of the Anglo-Indian Deputy Commissioner, Disney. This was the ‘murder list’. Haq Nawaz, Superintendent of Police, transferred from Gurdaspur to Sargodha, incited Muslims while on the way to his new charge, to murder Hindus and Sikhs. The Deputy Commissioner was a willing tool in the hands of the Muslim League plotters, the police and officials, all of whom took their inspiration and guidance from the above-named Karamat Ali, at whose residence daily meetings of these elements were held.

The situation was tense and ominous. All issue of petrol to non-Muslims was stopped. Petrol was dumped for arson. After the 20th August military used to parade the town for four or five days. But there were no incidents. Without valid ground, curfew was imposed on the 24th August. This was the first time Sheikhupura experienced curfew. Here too the curfew operated as everywhere in Pakistan. Muslims were free to move about during curfew hours, to set fire to houses of non-Muslims and to commit murders. non-Muslim representatives approached the D. C. with the request to lift curfew, as it was being abused. But he did not agree to this request.

Muslims were making brisk preparations for the rioting of the next few days. There was a good deal of coming and going of Muslims at the residence of Karamat Ali, Minister. On the 25th, Hindu and Sikh houses were burned in Gurdwara Bazar. A false alarm was raised of an attack on a Muslim mohalla by Sikhs. All this was done to incite Muslims to fall upon Sikhs. On the 25th also a vigorous attack was made on Ramgarha which had a Sikh population of 1,200. Sikhs were being chased. The Muslim mob was followed by the military. When Sikhs gave a fight the Muslim mob retreated. Then the military took the lead and took up positions against Hindu-Sikh areas at about 2 o’clock (day). By about 5 o’clock the Hindu-Sikh population of this area had been killed, and the houses were in flames. Muslim mobs now swelled and spread out to attack to different parts of the town. Street after street was surrounded by Muslim mobs, military and police. The looting, burning and murdering continued all over the town for more than 24 hours, and stopped only on the evening of the 26th. Some Hindus and Sikhs saved themselves by hiding; others ran out during the night. 3,000 Hindus and Sikhs were killed by the military in Atma Singh’s factory alone. Altogether 15,000 Hindus and Sikhs were killed in this massacre. Pt. Nehru, at the time lie toured the West Punjab with Mr. Liaqat Ali Khan, estimated the number of those killed in Sheikhupura at 22,000. Women were molested. Hindus and Sikhs who resisted the molesters were shot dead on the spot. In the Namdhari Gurdwara two wells were filled with the bodies of Hindu and Sikh women who committed suicide to save themselves from dishonour. Two other wells were similarly filled. Swami Nand Singh, a member of the Peace Committee was shot dead by his former Muslim colleagues on this Committee. On the night of the 25th August, the D. C. was present in the Main Bazar when arson, murder and looting was going on. A Section 30 Magistrate, Ahmed Shafi asked Lt.-Col. Dr. Surat Singh to convey his boast to Sikh leaders that Muslims had done in two days what Sikhs might never be able to do to Muslims.

This is in brief the tragic story of Sheikhupura.

The countryside of Sheikhupura, like that of Lahore was combed for Sikhs and Hindus, who were turned out of their houses, and murdered in large numbers. Muslims fell upon Hindus and Sikhs all over the district with a brutality and thoroughness the extent of which it is difficult to imagine, and of which only a vague idea can be given in the brief accounts given below. It is not easy to estimate how many actually succeeded in reaching the river Ravi or crossing it successfully, on their way to India in the first few days after the establishment of Pakistan.

The village of Kot Pindi Das in Shahdara Tehsil was attacked on the 15th August and, was thoroughly burned and pillaged for two days. It appears those who attacked were busy in pocketing loot. So, Hindus and Sikhs managed to escape with their lives in a destitute state.

Bohar, Chak 8 and Chak 702 (all in the Tehsil of Nankana Sahib) were simultaneously attacked on the 21st August with the help of Muslim Military. The refugee train which carried Hindu and Sikh evacuees from these places was stopped near Shahdara, a railway station five miles West of Lahore, and they were stripped of all their possessions.

Nangal Bhuchar was attacked on the 21st August. Hindus and Sikhs were forced to save their lives by fleeing, leaving their entire property behind. While crossing Pattan Bhindian (on Ravi River) they were attacked. They put up a good tight, however, and routed their assailants.

Machhochak in Shahdara Tehsil was attacked on the 22nd. Muslims from 10 surrounding villages fell upon this single village. About 50 Hindus and Sikhs Were killed. The rest left in a destitute state.

Dhanoe was attacked by a Muslim mob, accompanied by Pakistan Military, on the 24th. Hindus and Sikhs fled to seek shelter in Babakwal, a neighbouring village. Their assailants pursued them there. Here a general slaughter ensued in which between 400 and 500 Hindus and Sikhs were killed. A number of women were abducted.

Sikham, situated in the jurisdiction of Muridke Police Station, was attacked on September 1. Here 100 Sikh males were killed and 50 were wounded. 22 women were abducted, while 50 were forcibly converted and married to Muslims.

At Dharanagar lying in the area served by Sharakpur Post Office, 90 Sikhs were killed on the 27th August. Of Chak No. 49, in Shahdara Tehsil which was attacked by 50 Pakistan Militarymen on the 25th August, the entire Sikh population was wiped out.

Aiya Kalan was attacked towards the end of August, also by Pakistan Military. Here the number of Sikhs killed was about 80. Another 30 were killed on the way while evacuating from this village.

Khori and Nangal Dunna Singh (in Gujranwala District) were attacked by beat of drum. When Hindus and Sikhs of these villages were evacuating and crossing Pattan Bhindian (on Ravi River) they were again attacked, and some women were abducted.

In Ratniwala about 30 Sikhs were killed, while another 100 were killed by the police near village Wadhai Chima when they were evacuating for safety to a refugee camp. .

Chak No. 12, also called Gobindpura, was attacked on the 27th August by a force of 2,000. 25 Hindus and Sikhs were killed here.

Hindus and Sikhs of Sadh Nau Abad were forced to quit their homes and were again attacked while crossing the Ravi River, when 40 were killed.

In Awan Labana, on the 25th a big attack was made by a Muslim mob, Muslim police and military. Here 200 Sikhs and Hindus were killed, 200 women and some children were abducted. Looting and burning occurred on an immense scale.

The village of Faridabad (in Nankana Sahib Tehsil) was attacked on the 26th. Only half of the Hindu-Sikh population of this place reached India. The rest were either killed or forcibly converted.

Chak No. 4 Risala, situated within the jurisdiction of War-burton Police Station was besieged for 3 days, from 26th to 28th August. An ultimatum was given to Hindus and Sikhs to embrace Islam or to be prepared to face the consequences. The attacking force had in it 30 men armed with rifles, who marched at the head of a big mob. The Sikhs of this place were many of them ex-military-men, and they put up a very stiff resistance. On the third day all Hindus and Sikhs were forced to quit in a destitute state.

At Shah Kot brutalities were committed. One Sikh’s eyes were gouged out by the Muslim mob. 1,000 Hindus and Sikhs were forcibly converted. Hindus and Sikhs of Sacha Sauda were turned out, stripped of all their possessions.

One of the memorable and heroic battles given by Sikhs took place at Bhuler Chak 119, in the jurisdiction of Sangla Hill Police Station. This large village was attacked on the 30th August. This village is located close to the borders of other districts, notably Gujranwala and Sialkot. All through August Muslims of the neighbouring areas continued to make preparations for attacks on Sikhs, with the active complicity of Muslim officials. After the 15th August, Bhular was the centre where Hindus and Sikhs of a considerable radius around came together for shelter. On the 30th, Muslims sent an ultimatum to the Sikhs of this place to vacate Bhuler, which the Sikhs indignantly rejected. Then Muslim mobs and police attacked from all sides. On the 1st September about 25,000 Muslims had gathered for attack. This mob attack, however, failed to break the morale of the Sikhs. Then armed police and Baluch Military stepped in to help the Muslim mob. Finding that the fight was unequal, Sikhs decided to die fighting, and killed their own womenfolk to save them from dishonour. A fierce and desperate battle ensued after this. Sikhs set fire to their own homes and property. About 200 Sikhs met their death in this engagement. The rest evacuated, fighting.

Sangla Hill is a fairly large and flourishing town in Sheikhupura district. This place was attacked on the 27th August by the Muslim Military, and the attack continued for several days. Here the technique followed was the same as employed by Muslims in most other towns. Curfew was imposed, which confined Hindus and Sikhs to their houses while Muslims went about freely, setting fire with police help to Hindu and Sikh houses, killing and looting. Here operations were directed against Sikhs by Magistrate M. G. Cheema of Lahore notoriety. 300 Sikhs were killed and a large number were shaved forcibly. Stabbing went on with police looking on. Hindus were given a false assurance of safety and ordered on pain of death not to shelter Sikhs. Later, Hindus too were looted and killed. Huge looting went on for days in this prosperous town. Searches took place in a way which outraged the modesty of Hindu and Sikh women.

Other Sheikhupura villages looted and devastated on a large scale, in which men were killed and women abducted are, Kuthiala Virkan, Khanna Labana, Chak 32, Chak 33, Malian Shekhan, Khanpur Kalla, Hariala etc.

Kathiala Virkan, in the jurisdiction of Muridke Police station was attacked on the 19th, when Sikhs began to evacuate. The evacuees were attacked between the villages of Fatehpur and Bhatianwala by Muslims of 20 neighbouring villages. 200 Sikhs were killed, and 250 women were abducted. Out of the original jatha of 5,000 only 1,500 finally reached India, the rest having been killed on the way in attacks at various points.

Sharakpur is a Municipal town and a Sub-Tehsil of District Sheikhupura. Here leading Muslims had promised safety to Hindus and Sikhs with oath on the Koran. On the 27th August, however, the day after the unprecedentedly large Sheikhupura Massacre, Muslims fell upon Hindus and Sikhs. Muslims armed with rifles and automatic weapons attacked Hindus and Sikhs. Only 71 out of a total Hindu-Sikh population of a thousand escaped being murdered. Women and children were not spared. Jewellery and property worth hundreds of lakhs was looted from Hindus and Sikhs.

This was another installment of the elimination of minorities from Pakistan.

Lyallpur constituted the richest spot the Sikhs possessed in the Punjab. It was purely a Sikh creation, economically speaking. Sikhs had converted by hard toil of generations a sandy waste which this area was, into the granary of the Punjab. The Lyallpur Sikhs were not only one of the most prosperous group among the Sikhs anywhere, but they were also very well-disciplined, independence-loving and had a highly developed social conscience. They had taken a leading part in the movements of education and reform which stirred the Sikh people in the twentieth century. They were a proud, assertive and militant kind of people, who would not easily take a beating from any one. It was of the Lyallpur Sikhs primarily and also of the Sheikhupura Sikhs that the official Pakistan publication said that they left the West Punjab ‘defiantly.’ Yes, the sturdy Sikhs of those areas left the West Punjab thoroughly defiantly, and not abjectly. It was they again, to turn out whom from West Punjab, Governor Mudie made up his mind firmly. In his letter to Governor-General Jinnah, quoted elsewhere, he said:

“I am telling everyone that I don’t care how the Sikhs cross the border, the great thing is to get rid of them as soon as possible. There is still little sign of the 3 lakh Sikhs in Lyallpur moving, but in the end they too will have to go.”

This letter needs being pondered over carefully to realize the deep-laid Pakistan conspiracy to turn out Sikhs from their hearths and homes in his way: “I don’t care how……”

In the town and district of Lyallpur as a whole there had been few incidents of any kind before August, 1947. That was because the Sikhs of Lyallpur were so sturdy, so well-organised and capable of giving to any assailant much more of beating than they got. So, despite their majority in the district, Muslims dared not attack the Sikhs. There had been a few stabbing incidents in Lyallpur, and curfew for a few days but that was all. While in the neighbouring districts of Multan, Sargodha and Jhang there had been trouble on a varyingly large scale, the prestige of the Lyallpur Sikhs kept the Muslims at a respectful distance. Later on it was the Pakistan Military and police which finally decided the Sikhs upon leaving. And then they left, but in the words of the Pakistanis, ‘defiantly’ offering stiff resistance in most places.

So little was the amount of disturbances in Lyallpur up till August and so great the confidence of the Sikhs in being able, despite all that had happened since March 5, 1947 to get on even in Pakistan, that they more or less made up their minds to becoming citizens of Pakistan when Pakistan came into being. One of the two Sikh members elected to go into the Pakistan Constituent Assembly was a resident of Lyallpur, Giani Kartar Singh. The other, Sardar Ujjal Singh, belonged to the neighbouring district of Sargodha.

But so determined was the policy of the Pakistan Government and of the Muslim League in ejecting all non-Muslims and especially Sikhs from Pakistan, that harassment and murder of Sikhs and Hindus began even in quiet Lyallpur, as soon as Pakistan came into being. A few days after the establishment of Pakistan two non-Muslims were stabbed to death in Lyallpur near the Clock Tower, a very central place in the town while a crowded peace-meeting was being addressed by the Deputy Commissioner there on the need for communal peace. This incident and a few others of the kind showed to Hindus and Sikhs which way the wind was blowing for them. By the end of August murder and arson by Muslims had become very common in Lyallpur, and Hindus and Sikhs moved into refugee camps, those at Khalsa College, at the Arya School, and other places. Evacuation from these camps began somewhat later.

The way in which the Pakistan administration functioned is illustrated by such instances as these: One Sikh’s hand was cut off by Muslims with the kirpan snatched from the Sikh. The police put the Sikh under arrest and nothing was done against the Muslims. 12 Sikhs were stabbed during curfew hours, in spite of which being imposed, Muslims roamed about freely, attacking Hindus and Sikhs. One woman was snatched away from a Hindu by Muslim Janglis, while the two were going to the aerodrome to take plane to India.

In the rural areas the attacks began round about the beginning of September. By that time the whole of the West Punjab was in flames, so to speak. Hindus and Sikhs were being attacked everywhere and were largely on the move to India. Lyallpur Sikhs were the last to be attacked and it was the Pakistan Military alone which felt confident of handling them.

The village of Chak 37 is situated close to the Lahore-Shorkot railway line. On the 4th September a refugee train was stopped near this village and Muslim Military attacked it, killing 50 Sikhs. After this butchery, the train was again started.

Jaranwala, a prosperous commercial town, was attacked by a large Muslim mob on the 28th August. While the townfolk (Hindus and Sikhs) put up a good resistance at first, the mob fell upon a hospital where Sikhs who had fled from the Sheikhupura terror of August 25-26th had taken refuge. 57 of these helpless Sikhs were killed and 40 of their womenfolk were abducted.

Attack on Jaranwala continued for ten days or longer. A large number of Hindus and Sikhs, estimated at about 700 were killed in the various refugee camps, such as the Mandi, the school and Turianand Hospital. 700 women were abducted and the number of those wounded was in the vicinity of 1,000. This attack was planned after the joint visit of Pt. Nehru and Mr. Liaqat Ali Khan, so that the Indian Prime Minister could be shown a clean record in this part of Pakistan.

From Chak No. 143 in Samundari Tehsil which was attacked by a Muslim mob on the 4th and 5th September, not more than 3 Sikhs were known to have come to India out of its total Sikh population of 700. This fact has its own grim story to reveal.

Kamalia, a large town, was attacked near about August 15. Here Muslim officials becoming active early, got as many as 3,500 Hindus and Sikhs killed and a very large number, especially Hindus, were forcibly converted. Other details like looting etc. are better left to the imagination of the reader.

Balloki Head was the bottleneck at which Hindu-Sikh convoys coming from Montgomery, Lyallpur, Sargodha and Multan etc. had to cross over the River Sutlej into Indian territory. Here these convoys were quite often detained for days together and extensively searched. These ‘searches’ were really predatory attacks in which everything of value was snatched from Hindu 12 and Sikh refugees by Pakistan Military, police and Muslim goondas. From the huge Sikh convoy of 90,000 which reached Balloki Head on or about the 13th September, a group of 4,000 was forcibly detached and diverted towards Bhai Pheru. This group was attacked on the way and out of it hardly 250 survived.

In the beginning of September, Hindus and Sikhs of 8 or 9 villages around Chak 305 (in the jurisdiction of Police Station Chatiana) were forced to quit their homes under threat of shooting. Their arms were taken away from them, and they were kept thirsty for a whole day. Then they were ordered to march. Those in the rear were repeatedly attacked and killed and their womenfolk abducted. After much further ill-treatment they were pushed into a railway train. This train was stopped at mile 5 on the Shorkot Road line and Pakistan Military and police fell upon it. This happened on the 9th September. Out of the 5,000 Hindus and Sikhs in this train, only 6 (six) survived. So thorough was the slaughter of these Hindus and Sikhs.

Hindus and Sikhs while evacuating from Pakistan were subjected to repeated attack, killing and looting. From village after village have come stories confirming this. The Hindu and Sikh inhabitants of several villages collected in Chak 272, which however, was attacked and extensively looted on September 8. The survivors of this attack evacuated from their place of shelter and were again attacked near Salooni Jhal. Here a large number of Hindus and Sikhs were killed and great loot was taken by the invaders. The unhappy survivors’ trials were not yet at an end, for they were once again robbed of their belongings at Balloki Head, in Pakistan, the point at which they had to cross over into India.

The Sikh and Hindu residents of Chak No. 310 and other neighbouring villages in Tehsil Toba Tek Singh had to undergo very gruesome experiences at the hands of Pakistan Military and Muslim National Guards. About the last week of August, Muslim Military began attacks on Sikh bustees. The Muslim Sub-Divisional Officer of this area lulled Sikhs into a false sense of security by repeated oaths on the Koran and promises that Sikhs would not be attacked. Finding conditions growing intolerable, on the 1st September 5,000 Sikhs left the area on foot. Still the S. D. O. promised on the Koran that he would make them entrain from Toba Tek Singh and arrange for their safe evacuation to India. Instead, however, of being taken to Toba Tek Singh, they were taken to Chak No. 95 where they were attacked by Muslim Military and Muslim National Guards. Several women were abducted here. Finally on the 7th September these people were put in a train for India at Toba Tek Singh. This train was attacked by a large Muslim mob and the Muslim National Guards. These attacks were repeated and between Toba Tek Singh and Dabbanwala Railway Stations more than 1,500 Sikhs were killed.

A convoy of Sikhs of Chak 204 and its neighbouring villages was looted by Muslim Police at Balloki Head, the place already mentioned as being the point of junction between India and Pakistan. A portion of this convoy was diverted by the Police to Bhai Pheru, where an attack was made and 220 of the convoy were killed, 250 wounded and 15 women were abducted. Other portions of this convoy were also repeatedly attacked and looted. Near Khudian, which is close to Chhanga Manga, Muslim villagers broke the bund of the canal to obstruct the passages of this convoy and to entrap and slaughter it. The Gurkha Military accompanying the convoy, however, showed praiseworthy firmness. It is said the Gurkha Jemadar was wading in water up till his neck, but made the Muslims to realize that it would go hard with them if they continued to play mischief by letting flow the water of the canal. The threat of reprisals on the part of Indian Military made the Muslims realise that their own safety lay in ending the mischief. So the broken bund was repaired by them and the convoy passed on.

In the Loco Workshops Shed at Lyallpur Railway Station on the 3rd September, 3 Sikhs were killed in an attack. Among those killed was a child.

At Tarakabad Railway crossing, Muslim Military shot dead 60 Sikhs, who were part of a Sikh convoy which was proceeding on its way to evacuate to India. This happened on the 3rd September.

The incidents narrated above are only a very few (so few indeed as to be not more than two percent of all that happened in Lyallpur district). More names of villages attacked and casualties suffered appear in the catalogue of attacks appended towards the end of this book.

The Lyallpur Sikhs, as has been pointed out above, were a resolute disciplined body of men and in these days they were fortunate in being served by a band of selfless and cool-headed leaders, who to shame the devil, decided to co-operate fully with the regulations of the Pakistan Government, which that Government never seriously put into effect. Some of these workers had to their credit the rescue of Muslim women and children trapped in East Punjab.

In some places Sikhs in desperation followed the scorched-earth policy, destroying their own belongings when it became clear that they would in any case be looted by their despoilers, Pakistani Muslims. No wonder the Pakistan pamphlet complained that Sikhs left West Punjab ‘defiantly.’

During the months of September and October, 1947 the roads leading from West Punjab into India revealed one unending, melancholy procession, day after day, of Sikh men, women, children and cattle, all fatigued and hungry, as they trekked into India, some with their few salvaged belongings in carts and others on foot. These begrimed and harassed Sikhs were those driven out of Lyallpur by systematic and designed Pakistan terror.

Many died on the way, especially the young, the old and the sick. The roads were all full of stench at every few yards from dying cattle. It was to this state that Pakistan had reduced the best and most prosperous colonists which India has in recent times known.

The District of Gujranwala lies next to Sheikhupura west of Lahore. The Muslim population of this district was 70.45%, while the Hindu and Sikh population combined was 22.70%. As everywhere in the Punjab, Sikhs and Hindus were enlightened entrepreneurs, good businessmen and organisers, and the Sikhs were very good farmers and owners of rich, fertile land for which they contributed land-revenue many times their population strength.

Nizamabad in Gujranwala District is famous for its cutlery industry. Thousands of parcels of knives from this place have been despatched by the Muslim grinders to different places in the Punjab and outside to replenish the armouries of Muslim League and Muslim National Guards. Very many times the Police of Bombay, Central Provinces, the United Provinces and other provinces have intercepted these parcels in the railway yards, and thus prevented their reaching those who could have used them for murdering the followers of other religions. But while some of these parcels have been confiscated through police vigilance, many times the number so confiscated surely reached their destination.

Wazirabad, a railway junction joining the Lahore-Rawalpindi-Peshawar main line and the Jammu-Sialkot line has earned great notoriety for the attacks made on Hindu-Sikh refugee trains and for the large massacres which took place both in the town and at the station.

Gujranwala itself continued to be disturbed in June and July; and in August, like all other West Punjab towns, it rose to massacre and hound out its Hindu and Sikh population. A peace meeting had to be called in Gujranwala on the 11th July at which Muslim League leaders including Mian Iftikharuddin and the Khan of Mamdot made very glib speeches about the virtue of neighbourliness and communal harmony. But the Muslim audiences knew very well that all Muslim League leaders’ peace appeals, from Mr. Jinnah downwards were meant only to do a formality, to fool the Western world and to lull Hindus and Sikhs into a false sense of security. Behind the scenes these very speech-makers were planning riots and organising and financing arson and murder.

In July stabbing attacks on Hindus and Sikhs occurred frequently. There were also some attacks on Hindu-Sikh areas and arson was attempted. But the Hindus and Sikhs of Gujranwala were a well organised and fearless people, and gave back to the Muslims better than they got. Especially was the Gurdwara attacked, from which Sikhs kept their assailants well at bay.

With the approach of August 15, however the aspect of things began to change. By the end of July when a Muslim Deputy Commissioner arrived to take over charge of the District, the Muslim determination to hound the Hindus and Sikhs out of the own was evident. Officials, police and Muslim League were working in close co-operation to this end. Hindus and Sikhs naturally sensed the imminent danger and tried to leave before loss of life occurred. The Hindu-Sikh exodus became a general flight, for which even enough transport was not available. On the 27th July stabbing of Hindus and Sikhs was going on frequently. In the curfew if the Hindus and Sikhs came out, they were arrested, while Muslims went about armed, freely doing whatever mischief they liked. Stabbing of Hindus and Sikhs went on with the police looking on. Hindus’ and Sikhs’ houses were set on fire; even when the culprits who did this were arrested, the police did not take cognizance of the offence. A secret order was issued by Mehar Ghulam Mohammed, Inspector of Police who went from Amritsar, to the Muslim policemen to kill all non-Muslim policemen. Muslim police constables shot dead at sight any Hindu or Sikh. Between the 11th and 17th August all Hindu and Sikh localities, such as Guru Nanakpural Hakim Rai, Mandi Khajurwali, Brahm Akhara, Chauk Chashma, Sheikhupura Gate area, etc. had been burned. The murder of Hindus and Sikhs occurred on a large scale. One of the most brutal and shocking murders was that of Dr. Tej Bhan’s family. There were 14 members in their family. Dr. Tej Bhan’s house was attacked by Muslim police, but the attack was repulsed. Then Imdad Hussain Shah, Sub-Inspector came with more force. The house was set on fire at which the inmates came out. The men were first shot dead; and then the womenfolk with children in their arms. Only one minor boy and one girl escaped.

Sub-Inspector Hussain Shah, who at Lahore had burned down the vast and prosperous Hindu area inside Shahalmi Gate in collusion with Magistrate M. G. Cheema, now came to Kamoke, a prosperous Hindu-Sikh trading centre a few mites from Gujranwala. He carried on a general massacre of Hindus and Sikhs in Kamoke town and in the Ilaqa.

Asghar Ali Shah, Assistant Sub-Inspector of Naushehra Virkan got all Sikhs within his jurisdiction murdered. He would collect them under pretext of making some enquiry and get them all shot dead.

These were some of the ways in which minorities were being eliminated in Pakistan.

Village Dorhian in the area of Police Station Kila Didar Singh had a purely Sikh population. The inhabitants of this area were murdered wholesale by the police and Muslim National Guards. In Eminabad wholesale murder of Hindus and Sikhs occurred also. At Sohadra, on the 13th August, 60 Hindus and Sikhs were killed. Burji Chanda Singh was attacked repeatedly from the 16th August to the 2nd September and 125 Sikhs got killed.

The town of Gakhar was attacked on the 17th August. Here looting and killing continued for 3 days. 200 Sikhs and Hindus were killed.

Kot Des Raj was attacked on the 15th August. Here the number of Hindus and Sikhs killed was 300; 120 were forcibly converted. In Udhowali, attacked on the 27th, about 60 were killed. Almost the entire Hindu and Sikh population of Maju Chak, numbering 500 was slaughtered.

Village Ramke Chatha was attacked on the 5th September. Here Hindus and Sikhs took the life of their own womenfolk to save them being dishonoured by Muslims. Mandi Sukhoki was attacked on the 3rd September. Sikhs were ferreted out from Hindu homes and killed with brutality.

Dharaunkal was attacked on 19th August. Out of its total Sikh population of 80 only about 20 survived the attack.

A large massacre of Hindus and Sikhs occurred at Dhariwal in the jurisdiction of Kila Didar Singh Police Station. Hindus and Sikhs were evacuating, and were attacked near Lalpur. 1000 were killed.

Great destruction of Hindu-Sikh lives also occurred in the villages falling within the jurisdiction of Wadhon Police Station, which was attacked by Mohd. Azam Magistrate, and the D. S. P.

In Ladhowali Chima a big massacre occurred. 125 Hindus and Sikhs were killed and 50 wounded. 200 women were abducted. The people of village Sagar put up a heroic resistance and most of them died fighting against the Muslim assailants.

In Mari Thakran 76 were killed.

Patlemal, Mirzapur, Thapnala and Mirza Jan suffered great loss of Hindu and Sikh lives.

Muslim goondas were imported from Lahore to attack Lohianwala, a village three miles outside Gujranwala. Here 30 to 40 Sikhs were killed. Looianwala, another village was attacked by the Muslim military which got down from a train which was stopped on purpose, and attacked this village, Sikhs were hounded down and in a brief space of time 100 were killed.

In Wadd 42 Hindus and Sikhs were killed.

Kamoke is an important trading town, a few miles east of Gujranwala. Hindus and Sikhs had set up here flourishing Mills, factories and banks. Here, on the arrival of the Muslim military, on the 16th August, looting and murdering of Hindus and Sikhs started. On the 16th August 100 bags of rice were looted from shops of Hindus and Sikhs and on the next day a whole truck-ful of food looted by Muslims. One woman was shot dead. The general attack began on the 21st, when the police called 50 to 60 Hindus and Sikhs out of their houses and shot them dead. On the 23rd eight rice husking factories, all belonging to Hindus and Sikhs were burned and so were many houses of Hindus and Sikhs. When Hindus and Sikhs, on demand of the Muslim police officers, paid a sum of sixty thousand rupees, this arson and murder stopped temporarily. But soon after, these activities were resumed by Muslims and huge looting occurred which included the Central Bank and wheat in Mandi, which was worth four lakhs of rupees. On the 24th the Gurdwara of Dam Dama Sahib was attacked. The Granthi and several Sikhs inside the Gurdwara were murdered by a Muslim mob of 1,000. Later, another 150 Hindus and Sikhs were killed while sheltering in private houses.

Towards the beginning of September, a Hindu-Sikh refugee train coming from West Punjab was attacked by a Muslim mob, abetted by the police and military, at Kamoke. The refugees in the train had been kept without water for two days. Whatever weapons of defence the refugees had, such as licensed guns, were taken away from them. The mob stabbed and speared the passengers, while the police shot down any one who tried to escape by running away. The Pakistan Military made a show of firing, but their shots were directed towards the sky and not the mob and after a short while they also joined the mob and the police in shooting down the passengers.

Most of the male refugees were butchered or shot dead. The women were sorted. The elderly ones were later butchered, while the younger ones were distributed. Children were murdered by being flung with force on the ground.

Wazirabad which was an important Hindu-Sikh trading centre, became like Raiwind, notorious for the large number of attacks on Hindu and Sikh refugee trains. On the 12th August a train left Amritsar. Its Hindu and Sikh passengers were first attacked at Moghulpura five miles east of Lahore, and almost all of them were murdered. Some few who escaped reached Wazirabad and beyond. On the 13th a general massacre of Hindus and Sikhs occurred at Wazirabad. The Mandi was burned and huge looting took place. The same day general looting of the bazar again occurred and all available Hindus and Sikhs in the bazar were murdered. Trains coming from Wazirabad carrying Hindus and Sikhs fleeing from Muslim terror, were stopped at Nizamabad, a few miles cast, and the Muslim military escort joined Muslim goondas of the mob in murdering Hindu and Sikh passengers. 5 or 6 women were abducted from this train. Altogether about 500 Hindu and Sikhs travelling by this train were killed. The railway track to Jammu, whither Hindu and Sikh refugees were going as the nearest way out, was removed. This train was also attacked, but its escort fortunately was Sikh and thus the Muslim mob were kept at a safe distance from Hindu and Sikh passengers.

The Sikhs of this district like those of the neighbouring district of Lyallpur were colonists mainly from the districts of Central and Eastern Punjab. Many of them were ex-soldiers or their descendants, who had got grants of land from the British Government for war service, since the beginning of the twentieth century. These sturdy colonists cleared the jungles and made of them smiling and prosperous fields. The local Muslims were the Janglis-wild, illiterate folk, whose fanatical passions could easily be roused by the Muslim League leaders of this area, who were big absentee landlords and had neither the enterprise nor the industry and ability of the Sikhs and the Hindus, who brought prosperity to this area.

The population proportion of this district were as follows:-

In Montgomery town trouble started on the 18th August, just the day after the announcement of the Boundary Commission Award. Montgomery, or at least those areas of it which were contiguous to Lahore and faced on to Ferozepore, in which most part of the Sikh land was situated, was one of the ‘dispute’ regions before the Boundary Commission and like Sheikhupura, Lahore and part of Lyallpur, it was expected that this area in justice and fairness would be awarded to India. Men, however, the Boundary Commission’s Award was announced, the Muslim Leaguers, waiting only for a signal, directed their attack on Sikhs and Hindus. On the evening of the 18th August, Sikh and Hindu shops were looted and all Sikhs and Hindus found in the bazars were murdered. The attacked communities shut themselves up in their houses and Gurdwaras and Mandirs. The Mandir was attacked. Hindus and Sikhs, after the first day, gave tough fight, but their valour and courage could not avail them anything against the Pakistan Military, police and officials, who were planning and leading the attacks. Huge loot was collected by Muslims from deserted and burning Hindu and Sikh houses. Sikhs had taken shelter inside the big building of Gurdwara Singh Sabha. Here they resisted attacks for days. Life inside this confinement was extremely hard, as food was scanty, and so was water. Dirt continued to accumulate, but the Sikhs inside bore all such sufferings with stoic courage. Even when Sikhs came out under official permit to carry rations inside the Gurdwara, they were subjected to torture and humiliation. Sikhs and Hindus were fired on and shot at the railway station, where they were waiting for days for being transported to India.

The attack on Montgomery town was the signal for Muslim attack on Sikhs and Hindus all over the district. In village after village, as happened in Sheikhupura, Gujranwala, Gujrat or for the matter of that, any of the West Punjab districts, Sikhs were attacked, and fired on by Pakistan Military and police, which invariably directed the operations of the Muslim mobs.

The village of Mirak Shah (Police station Nurshah jurisdiction) was attacked on the 22nd August by a Muslim mob, Muslim National Guards, Police and Military in combination. An ultimatum was issued to Hindus and Sikhs to turn Muslims or to face the consequences. On their refusal to turn Muslims, they were extensively looted. The threatened population took shelter at Tandlianwala, in Lyallpur district, which is at a short distance. Tandlianwala was attacked by Muslims on the 25th August. The Gurdwara, where Hindus and Sikhs had taken shelter, was set on fire. Pakistan Military and Police fired on the Hindus and Sikhs who came out on the roof of the Gurdwara building. About 300 Hindus and Sikhs were killed here. On the 28th August, Wards Nos. 2, 3 and 4 of Tandlianwala, which had Hindu and Sikh populations, were attacked. In this attack, 1,900 Hindus and Sikhs were killed, and 400 women were abducted. The loot from this prosperous Hindu-Sikh commercial centre can only be imagined. The attacking force numbered about 25,000.

Chak 139/9L was attacked on the 1st Bhadon (about the end of August). This village and Chak No. 128/9L, which is in its neighbourhood, were simultaneously attacked. In these two villages Sikhs and Hindus from 27 surrounding villages had collected for shelter. The assailants who had come from the surrounding areas for this ‘holy war’ numbered about 30,000. Sikhs put a very stiff resistance, and held out for days. Casualties were inflicted on both sides. Ultimately Sikhs and Hindus were evacuated to India by the Indian Military.

Sikhs and Hindus from Chaks 65/4R, 65/J.D., 27, 61, 78 etc., finding a peaceful life rendered any longer impossible for them, formed, near about the 23rd August a caravan for travelling to India. No Military accompanied these people. Near Yusufwala railway station these people were attacked by a large crowd which was well armed and was led by Muslim National Guards. 18 Sikhs were killed in this attack. The evacuees were subjected to tremendous looting by Muslim mobs. Near Montgomery town police fired on this caravan. Here vast killing ensued, and 400 women were abducted. Finding the situation hopeless, a number of Sikh women immolated themselves by burning themselves or jumping into wells, to escape dishonour at the hands of Muslims. Some Sikhs took the lives of their own womenfolk. Among those who thus destroyed themselves were children of even eight and ten years of age.

In Hujra Shah Muqim the attack came on the 22nd August and continued for several days. The local Sub-Inspector of Police lulled Hindus and Sikhs into a false sense of security by promising to protect them against attack. However, a day after such assurance, the Muslim mob advanced to attack under cover of the Police and Military. Hindus and Sikhs in panic collected in 3 mohallas for safety. These 3 mohallas were set on fire by the Military. Hindu and Sikh women in these mohallas immolated themselves to escape dishonour. The men fought back, but could do little against the Police and Military. At last word was given to them that they would be safe if they came out of these mohallas. But as soon as they came out, indiscriminate fire was opened on them and 3,100 Hindus and Sikhs were shot dead. When the survivors were at last marched towards India, they were attacked by Muslims at Husainiwala Head in Pakistan. Here several men were killed and 25 women were abducted. Some Hindus were forcibly converted, but later on they were shot dead by Muslims.

An evacuee train carrying Hindus and Sikhs was held up at Montgomery railway station (first week of September) for attack. The pretext was made was that no coal was available for the engine. Hindu and Sikh factory owners, who were awaiting evacuation agreed to give coal out of their stocks for the engine, but as coal shortage was not the real cause of the train being held up, so it was not started. An attack on this train was, however, averted at Montgomery. Later this train was attacked at Raiwind on the 4th September, where already a large number of dead bodies of Sikhs were lying along the railway track. Those of the Sikhs killed in this train were added to those which were already lying there.

Pakpattan, Harappa, Okara, Dipalpur and other places in this district were also attacked, Hindus and Sikhs were killed and their belongings looted. In many places Muslim pirs directed these attacks and characterized them as a holy war waged against infidels, that is Hindus and Sikhs.

Sialkot is a district bordering on Lahore and Amritsar beside Gurdaspur and Gujranwala. Its population proportions were as under: -

which means that its population was divided into communities pretty much as in its neighbouring districts of Gujranwala and Sheikhupura, in both of which such huge carnage occurred among Hindus and Sikhs.

Sialkot did not have much of disturbance to speak of uptill August, 1947. Perhaps the Muslim League elements did not feel so very sure whether the district would be awarded to India or Pakistan. So, awaiting the Boundary Commission’s award they lay low, waiting for their opportunity.

Sikhs were a well-organised and important element in the district of Sialkot, despite their inferiority in numbers. They were mostly sturdy peasant proprietors and there were many ex-soldiers among them. The district had also played an important part in the Akali Movement and in the various Congress struggles. So, there were among the Sikhs and Hindus good leaders, organisers and fighters.

Muslim mischief started on the 12th August, the day after it had started in a big way at Lahore. An attack was made on Mohalla Bhabrian. Police were actively helping the assailants. Sikhs put up a very stiff and heroic resistance, and fought a strongly defensive battle.

Ultimately they were overpowered with the help of the Military. There was not much arson on this day, but quite a number of Hindus and Sikhs were murdered. The exodus of Hindus and Sikhs from Sialkot began after this attack. They took either the Jammu route or the Amritsar route. On the Wazirabad route, which was the third alternative, in those days no Hindu or Sikh was safe. At Wazirabad station, as stated elsewhere, several times massacres of Hindus and Sikhs occurred. On the Amritsar route, huge massacres occurred at Narowal and in its neighbourhood. As witnessed by a police constable, who was an evacuee from the district, he saw round about the 24th and 25th August, more than 500 dead bodies, mostly Sikhs lying outside Narowal. The railway track between Sialkot and Amritsar was strewn with dead bodies, mostly Sikhs. Village after village was attacked and pillaged. Sikhs were especially hunted down. While as a rule no non-Muslim convoy was allowed to pass a Muslim stronghold without being attacked, the main force of such attacks was directed against Sikhs, whom the Pakistan Muslims attacked with especially bitter malice. Earlier on the 17th, many Sikhs and Hindus had been murdered near Narowal when attempting to cross the River Ravi. The town was pillaged with arson and murder. Gurdwara Baoli Sahib in Sialkot was attacked on the 13th August. 20 Sikhs including women and children, who were inside the holy building, were killed or roasted alive in the flames of the burning Gurdwara.

As a matter of fact, on the 13th August, after their tame success of the 12th, Muslims made a full scale attack with the help of the police and the military. A vigorous campaign of arson, looting and murder was initiated, resulting in a large number of Hindu and Sikh houses and shops being burned and many Hindus and Sikhs being killed. The survivors fled to the railway station for safety, where on the 13th they noticed a train load of Hindus’ and Sikhs’ corpses arrive from Wazirabad side, at which station on the same day a huge massacre of Hindus and Sikhs had occurred. The famous Gurdwara of Babe di Ber was burned, so dear to Sikh sentiment as one of the places where Guru Nanak had resided for a considerable time. The inmates of this Gurdwara were shot dead by the police. Other Gurdwaras in the city were similarly attacked and burned.

While Hindu and Sikh refugees were being brought to India, a few days after, their lorries were unaccountably stopped at the Ravi Road in Lahore. A motor cyclist went into the town and brought with him a Muslim mob, which attacked these lorries, killing 40. The entire caravan would have been murdered, but for the timely arrival of Sikh military, who rescued the remainder. The survivors of this tragedy were seen at Amritsar by Rajkumari Amrit Kaur, Health Minister of India.

Bhawanipur, in Tehsil Shakargarh, which was formerly part of Gurdaspur District, but since 17-8-1947 the date on which the Award of the Boundary Commission was announced has been included in Sialkot (Pakistan), was the scene of brutality and highly reprehensible and heartless duplicity on the part of Muslims. On the 24th August this. village was attacked by a Muslim mob. Those Hindus and Sikhs who escaped killing, hid in a sugarcane crop to save their lives. Muslims standing outside the field gave promises of safety in the name of Allah to all such as came out. Such of the besieged as were simple enough to believe this promise were killed on the spot as soon as they came out. Only a few women and 3 men were left. These men too were killed later. Many of the young girls were abducted.

Village Badomali was attacked and a large killing done and many women abducted. Below is the statement of Parsini, a 15 year old Hindu abducted girl, rescued by Indian Military. Her statement to the Chief Liaison Officer, East Punjab Government is:-

“About three months-back our village was raided by Muslims and our street known as Samaj Wali Gali was set on fire and the property was looted. They announced to the Hindu population that they would be given safe passage across the river Ravi towards India if they would go out peacefully. When men, women and children walked out of their houses the Muslim raiders committed atrocities with the women in the open streets and all young girls were taken away and a very large number of men and old women were killed. I was forcibly taken away by one Fazal Din alias Fajja, a tonga driver of Baghbanpura. A very large number of raiders belonged to Baghbanpura. Mst. Piari, who is now present outside and her cousin named Piari were also with me at the time. Two men named Labhu and Allah Rakha were with these two girls and were forcing them to go with them. We all the three girls with three men walked on foot and passed the night at Passianwala at the house of a Muslim whose name I do not remember. The owner of this house was uncle of Allah Rakha who had abducted the senior Piari. Next day we were marched again to Baghbanpura at about 10 in the night. I was taken to the house of Fajja and the other two girls also spent the night at the same place. During the course of the night Labhu, against the wishes of senior Piari, who is present outside, committed rape on her and also relieved her of two gold rings. The next morning both these girls named Piari, were taken away by Allah Rakha and Labhu respectively. After 15 days or so I was forcibly married to one Farid, aged about 25 years, a relation of the said Fazal Din. I was taken to his house where he used me as wife in the face of great protest and resistance put up by me. I was given the name of Khurshid and was forcibly converted.”

Jalalpur Jattan, an important town, was disturbed on and after the 12th August. The Muslims there had planned murder of Hindus and Sikhs in collusion with the District officials. On the 18th burning of Hindu-Sikh houses and the Mandir started on a big scale. Trains were held up; telegraph wires 13 were cut, and every Hindu and Sikh was blockaded. Saving of life by fleeing was rendered impossible. In the village surrounding Jalalpur Jattan, a very large number of Hindus and Sikhs were killed. In this town itself, 400 were killed; only one person out of its Hindu and Sikh population is traced as having survived.

At Thambrewal, in Tehsil Daska, on the 16th August, several Hindus and Sikhs were murdered. About two dozen were forcibly, converted to Islam. These converts were later killed, their leaving of their ancestral creed not having satisfied the power-lust of their conquerors.

The village of Panj Grain Bajwa, in Tehsil Pasrur was attacked on the 26th by a Muslim mob and Pakistan police. Its total Hindu-Sikh population was 300 out of which only 70 or 80 survived. The rest were attacked several times and killed in large numbers on their way to Narowal, whence they intended to evacuate to India. Those who were not killed and were captured, were forcibly converted.

Hindus and Sikhs of Bhikho Chak were attacked by a party of 130 Muslims while they were leaving the village. The attack occurred on the Pattan at Ravi river. 113 of those attacked were killed; there were not more than 17 or 18 survivors.

In this village terrible butchering was done. The force which attacked it was 6,000 strong. Altogether 3,000 Hindus and Sikhs were killed by the Muslim Military with rifle fire. The number of women abducted was 300. The survivors were forcibly converted. Muslims made the attack with drums beating and possessed machine guns and such other weapons.

Of the village Bhoi in Tehsil Daska, very few Sikhs survived. In Melomer on the 29th August, as many as 1,500 Hindus and Sikhs were burnt alive in the places where they had hidden for shelter.

At Dhapai in the jurisdiction of Zaffarwal Police Station 150 Hindus and Sikhs were killed and 50 young girls were abducted.

Jassar is an important town in Sialkot District and a railway junction. A terrible massacre of non-Muslims occurred in this town on the 23rd October, 1947. This incident created great tension in East Punjab. The following telegram was sent by the Commander of J. D. Camp, Amritsar to the East Punjab Government:-

“No. 3346 ShW. Situation in Amritsar has deteriorated suddenly through information about attack on train load of non-Muslim refugees which occurred at Jassar in Sialkot district, and was proceeding to Dera Baba Nanak (India Border) on foot on 23rd. Though Pakistan press has given out that 30 were killed and 200 wounded rumour in city based on story of survivors and published in local papers is 1,500 killed. About 10,000 non-Muslims collected at noon today near the Muslim refugee camp at Cattle Fair ground for the purpose of attacking camp in retaliation. They have been persuaded to turn back with considerable difficulty. But feeling in city is still high. People are insisting that some action should be taken at highest level and West Punjab Government warned that unless incidents cease on their side, it will be difficult to control people on ours. Curfew has been imposed. Additional military posted at refugee camps Cattle Fair Ground and Jandiala. Muslim refugees train detained at Beas. Arrangements are being made to reinforce Beas. Muslim refugees train will only be passed through if railway track found in order and situation permits. Assistance of local leaders also being harnessed.”

The Deputy Commissioner, Gurdaspur, reported about this incident:-

“I visited Dera Baba Nanak with Brigade Commander and Superintendent Police yesterday in connection with the attack on the non-Muslim train near Jassar, district Sialkot. It appears all refugees were made to detrain at Jassar. The luggage had to be put aside and then short distance away attacked by armed Muslim mob. Military escort fired into air only and also shot dead three Sikh members of guard because they protested against Muslims failure shoot at mob. Only two thousand reached. Of this number about six hundred were injured; about seventy needing hospitalization. Thirty serious cases have been brought to Gurdaspur or sent to Amritsar hospital and others were being moved. It is not possible yet to give exact number dead or wounded left behind but total feared high as according some reports train carried about five thousand refugees. The property was all looted after systematic searches and a very large number of women have been abducted.”

On November 1, the Governor of West Punjab wirelessed his apologies to the Governor, East Punjab taking care, however, to minimise the number of casualties.

The message was as follows:-

“Your 381-GPP. The incident at Jassar is deeply regretted by all. Full particulars were furnished immediately after verification by Provincial Government to Prime Minister, East Punjab, Refugees Minister India, Deputy High Commissioner and CLO. Casualties in this incident were 30 refugees killed and 200 wounded; action of the escort resulted in 50 attackers killed; wounded not known but must have been 300 or 400. All possible steps are being taken to prevent such occurrences and this particular case is being vigorously investigated. I.G. Police has appointed an S. P. for special enquiry.”

This border district of the Punjab was comparatively undisturbed during the March riots. A mob of 10,000 attacked the town of Mianwali, but the presence of mind shown by the Deputy Commissioner and the authorities averted the trouble then. On the 28th August in Mianwali Muslim mobs and military killed 250 Hindus and Sikhs inside the Gurdwara, in Sanatan Dharm Mandir and Arya Sumaj Mandir. These places of worship were also attacked.

Later, a massacre of Hindus and Sikhs occurred, in which altogether 3,500 were killed and 1,000 women were abducted. Looting was on a very extensive scale.

After the establishment of Pakistan, however, the process of elimination of Hindus and Sikhs started in this district, as all over West Punjab, in full vigour. In this district, on the 1st September the Deputy Commissioner in an open meeting declared it to be his policy to turn out all Hindus and Sikhs from the district. . A regular time-table for this purpose was fixed, and parwanas were issued to the lower officials. Such an open declaration of policy left no doubt in the minds of the Muslim goonda elements as to their complete immunity from official action which they would have for anything done against Hindus and Sikhs.

A Sikh Captain, P. S. Grewal was shot dead by Muslim National Guards at Pai Khel railway station. No police action followed this murder.

Regular attacks on trains started after this. Hindus and Sikh passengers were combed out of trains, murdered and thrown on the platform, or along the railway track. No one checked these activities.

non-Muslim railway employees were murdered in large numbers. The Brahman station master of Shah Alam railway station was forcibly converted, and later on shot dead when he refused to swallow beef.

A Sikh railway employee of Doratta was murdered along with his whole family.

At Kundian railway station, as many as 72 Hindu railway employees and passengers were killed.

Kundian, Harnauli, Pipla, Kullur Kot and Bhakhar were attacked in the first week of September. The number of Hindus and Sikhs killed in these various places is:-

From Harnauli about 500 women and girls were abducted. The wounded were brought to the Government Hospital at Mianwali. The Muslim civil surgeon told Hindu and Sikh wounded that she would dress their wounds only if they got converted to Islam. Relief workers from among non-Muslims were repeatedly attacked and killed by Muslim mobs under the very nose of Pakistan Military.

In Darya Khan 1,500 Hindus were forcibly converted.

In Isa Khel the Deputy Commissioner got 25 Hindus besieged who were murdered by Muslim mobs. Later 50 Hindus were put under arrest. No Muslim was arrested.

In Sohla Wasti Sikhan of Bhakhar Tehsil, on 5 Sawan (beginning of September) a large number of Hindus and Sikhs were killed. 113 Hindus were forcibly converted and some women were abducted.

A Hindu-Sikh refugee train, which left Mianwali on the 13th October, was repeatedly attacked on the way between Kundian and Wan Bhuchran, at Sargodha and Shahdara. On the wav the refugees suffered acutely for lack of water, which was not given to them. Muslims sold it to Hindus and Sikhs at ten rupees a tumbler.

In Haidarbad Thal Area in Tehsil Bhakar, from the 25th August onwards villages Sadhwala, Manakera, Khin, Main, Dhinana, Wiri, Karloowala etc. were besieged and Hindus and the few Sikhs forced to quit their homes after great sufferings and being subjected to loot.

Wan Bhuchran was attacked on the 4th September. The Hindus approached the authorities for protection and were given assurance of safety. The mob nevertheless attacked the town that very night and arson and looting went on the whole night, A Hindu, who escaped from the besieged town at great risk, informed the district authorities at Mianwali. Military arrived, but did little except driving away the raiders. No loot was returned.

Attacks on Hindus and Sikhs began all over the district of Jhang near about the 24th August. Sikhs and Hindus were harassed, murdered and besieged in every town and village. Gurdwaras were almost everywhere burned, such as at Nanaksar and Chund.

In Mandi Shah Jiwana Sikhs and Hindus were looted on a large scale. In village Chund the Gurdwara where Hindus and Sikhs had collected for shelter was besieged. Ultimatum was given to them by Muslims to embrace Islam or face death. Hindu and Sikh women finding all hope of succour or safety gone, immolated themselves on funeral pyre to escape dishonour at the hands of Muslims. The men fought back the invaders and had 375 out of their total of 450 killed.

This state lies south-west of the Punjab, running along the rivers Sutlej and the extension of the Chenab, and borders on the Province of Sind. It had a minority of Hindu and Sikh population, and is ruled over by a Muslim Nawab. This state acceded to Pakistan.

After the establishment of Pakistan murder, loot and abduction were let loose on the Hindus and Sikhs of this state. Sikhs were almost all colonists, who had, like Sikhs in Lyallpur, Montgomery, Jhang and Multan, made the land productive through their hard labour. They were cut down in every village. The state authorities far from protecting them, only abetted their destruction.

At Bhattian in Rahim Yar Khan district 4000 Sikhs were collected from the surrounding villages with promises of safety by the state police. On the 23rd September, they were attacked. Out of this 4000, only 660 survived. 700 women were abducted. Looting of Sikhs’ property went on everywhere.

Hindus too, who as a class were prosperous, were looted and murdered everywhere. In the capital of the State, all Sikh and Hindu officials (who were not many in the civil list) were put under arrest without any cause.

In a press note the Ministry of States, Government of India, stated on December 3, 1947.

“The non-Muslim population of Bawalpur state, according to the 1941 census, was 2, 40,000 which, allowing for normal increase. is now estimated at about 2,70,000.”

“Of these between 70,000 and 80,000 recently had to leave the state as a result of the disturbance, the number left behind being stated to he in the neighbourhood of 70,000. This leaves over 100,000 unaccounted for.”

These 100,000 “unaccounted” for Hindus and Sikhs are the unfortunate ones who were hunted down by the Muslim mobs, Military and Police, and murdered for no other reason except that they were Hindus or Sikhs.

The devastation which occurred in Jhelum district in March, 1947 has been told of earlier. Very few Hindus or Sikhs were left in the countryside. They had either come down east, or had collected in refugee camps. The towns had been comparatively safe up till August. But on the establishment of Pakistan, things began to take an ugly turn for Hindus and Sikhs.

Towards the end of August, all Hindus and Sikhs in Rohtas and Sanghoi were put to death. Some women and girls were also abducted. All this was done with the active planning of Muslim Leaguers and the Police.

The total non-Muslim population of village Mirpur in Pind Dadan Tehsil was murdered, only 2 children having escaped. Vahalee wag razed to the ground, and its population burnt alive.

Hindus and Sikhs at Khewra were attacked, and forced to leave for India, after suffering losses in life.

In Pind Dadan Khan town there was large-scale murder of Hindus and Sikhs.

The refugees trains which left Jhelum district were attacked several times on the way to India and a heavy toll bf Hindu and Sikh lives was taken. One train was attacked on the 19th September between Pind Dadan Khan and Chalisa. Here heavy loss of life occurred. A further attack was made at Harbanspura, where however the timely active intervention of a British officer drove away the assailants. At Lahore, 200 of the wounded were carried out of the train, and most of them were systematically finished.

Another train left on the 24th September. This was attacked at Kamoke, where about a thousand Hindus and Sikhs were killed, and a large number of girls and women were kidnapped.

The town of Jhelum was attacked on the 25th September. Here the planning of the attack was done by the Pakistan Military. In Govindpura Mohalla, the centre of Hindu-Sikh population, about 700 Hindus and Sikhs were shot dead. People were dragged out of their houses and killed. Women were molested and many abducted. No evacuee from Jhelum was allowed to take out more luggage than he could carry on his head. Forty truck loads of Hindu-Sikh property were looted by Muslims from the railway station of Jhelum.

In the month of November, Hindu and Sikh girls brought by Pathan raiders from Kashmir were sold in the bazars of Jhelum.

The happenings of March, 1947 in Multan have been narrated earlier. Whatever Hindus and Sikhs were still left in that district, were mopped up after the establishment of Pakistan.

On the 26th September, a Muslim mob fell upon Makhdumpur Jaura. Here 1,500 Sikhs and Hindus were killed, and 150 women were abducted.

On the same date Rampur, in Kabirwala Tehsil was attacked. This was a Sikh village. All Sikhs to a man were killed here. Children were not spared. The women immolated themselves to escape dishonour at the hands of the Muslim marauders.

In the refugee camp of Mailsi 2,000 Hindus and Sikhs were shot dead in the beginning of October. The assailants were Pakistan Military. Later, at Mailsi railway station, another 200 were shot dead by them. The refugee train which carried the survivors of these attacks was also attacked several times on the way to India.

Chaks 571, 561, 563, 565, 566 etc. in Tehsil Vihari were attacked on the 31st August and the residents, mostly Sikhs, turned out of their hearths and homes in a destitute state. Their foot caravan was attacked several times on the way by Muslim mobs. They were safe from these attacks only when Indian Military got to know of them and escorted them to India.

In Chak 80 in Tehsil Shujabad, on the 11th September, 6 Sikhs were killed. The rest were turned out in a destitute state.

Muzaffargarh is an outlying district to the west of Multan. Here the Muslim proportion in the population was about 87%. Terrible massacres of Hindus and Sikhs occurred in this district, which was dominated by fanatical Muslim Pirs, rabid Muslim Leaguers and big feudal Muslim landlords, who flourished on the ignorance and easy impressionability of the Muslim masses around them.

On a conservative estimate. 10,000 Hindus and Sikhs were killed in this district.

Gurmani, Basti Navin and Patti Bhanwali etc. were places on which attacks started on the 9th September. Here all Sikhs and Hindus were forcibly converted by Muslims. The converted people, even the grown-up ones were circumcized and were forced to partake of beef. They were compelled to marry away their daughters to Muslims.

When these Hindus and Sikhs were later being evacuated to India, their train was attacked by Muslims near Kahna Kachha (Lahore district). The assailants were driven off by the Indian Military escort.

In Basti Sikhanwali, on the 10th September, 800 Sikhs and Hindus were killed.

The Deputy Commissioner of Muzaffargarh sent for Hindu notables, and warned them not to harbour or shelter any Sikhs as the latter had in any, case to be thrown out of Pakistan. This was about the middle of September.

At Kot Adu, on the 10th September, 1,400 people, mostly Sikhs, were killed. In this carnage women and children were not spared.

In Gobindpur, Alipur and Badra false assurances of safety were given to Sikhs. 150 Sikhs of Gobindpur were shut up in a building, which was set oil fire, and all were burnt alive. 20 women were abducted (August 19).

In the Tehsil of Khanewal in Jahanian and Mian Channu areas all Sikh villages were attacked. In Chak 107/15L half a dozen Sikhs were killed. The Gurdwara of Multan Cantonment was besieged. Hindus in Multan were forcibly converted on a large scale.

The district of Gujrat lies between Gujranwala and Jhelum. Although large-scale wiping out of Hindu and Sikh populations had occurred in Rawalpindi and Jhelum districts from March, 1947 onwards, yet the district of Gujrat as a whole had remained more or less quiet. That was perhaps because after the experience of Rawalpindi, Jhelum and Multan and the fear of Hindu-Sikh reprisals in the Eastern districts of the Punjab, the Government had tightened up security measures and large military forces were sent to the Western part of Punjab for keeping order. Anyhow, such steps were taken as kept the Muslim League elements in Gujrat under proper check.

Trouble, however, began immediately after the establishment of Pakistan, when mass murder of Sikhs and Hindus began in Sialkot, Wazirabad, Gujranwala and other parts of central and western Punjab. The district of Gujrat was particularly badly situated from the point of view of Hindus and Sikhs. It had no easy route of escape into Kashmir State, as Sialkot had. Towards the West of it the entire Hindu and Sikh population had been evacuated or murdered in the March riots. So, in towns and villages fanatical, League-directed Muslim mobs, Pakistan Military and Police fell upon Hindus and Sikhs, as usual murdering, burning, raping, looting and abducting.

Lala Musa, which is an important junction on the Delhi-Lahore-Peshawar main line, became the scene of Muslim League operations on the 18th August.

The technique adopted was the raising of a false cry that Sikhs had attacked Muslims. The entire town was blockaded by Muslim mobs from the town and the countryside with the help of Pakistan Police and Military. A vigorous attack was started against Hindus and Sikhs. Looting and arson occurred on a large scale. The loss of life was comparatively less. One of the features of this attack was that three big Gurdwaras in the town were set on fire, and their inmates were burnt alive. Hindu and Sikh women were molested by Pakistan Military. The train which carried Hindu and Sikh refugees from Lala Musa to India was stopped near Shahdara (Lahore) and a number of these refugees were killed.

Attack on the village of Murala, which has a well-known Sikh Gurdwara and is the home of Mahant Prem Singh, M.L.A. started as early as the 14th August, the day on which celebrations were going on in Karachi to receive the Crown of Pakistan for Mr. Jinnah from the British Viceroy. Here Muslims played a confidence trick. They got hold of all the valuable possessions of Sikhs on the pretext of guarding them from being looted. These valuables were, of course, never returned. A number of Sikhs of Village Dhalla were persuaded to come together into one house by Muslims, the reason given for such a step being that this was necessary for their safety. This house was then locked, and the trapped men, women and children left to burn inside the house which was set on fire. All were burnt alive inside. Those who tried to escape were caught hold of, thrown on the burning heap and finished in this way. On the 18th August which was the day of Id, the Dera of Murala, seat of Mahant Prem Singh and held in reverence by Sikhs, was attacked. 400 Sikhs and Hindus had taken shelter inside this Dera. All of them would have been butchered but the intervention of some Muslim notables of the area, personal friends of Mahant Prem Singh, turned back the attacking mob. The besieged, like all other Hindus and Sikhs of the area, went into the Refugee Camp at Gujrat in a destitute state. The station master of Kharian and 5 Sikhs were killed at Kharian railway station. Some Sikhs were also killed in the village of Loharian.

Jokalian and Mitha Chak and other places in this area began to be attacked on the 18th August. Muslims of this area had given assurance of safety on the oath of the Koran to their Hindu and Sikh neighbours. On the 18th August, however, the well-known technique of raising a false alarm of attack by Sikhs on Muslims was employed and the Muslims of the area were incited to attack Sikhs. Stabbing of individuals and harassment continued for some time.

On the 3rd September Muslims from about 60 surrounding villages gathered at Jokalian for attack. The number of this mob was about 20,000. The Gurdwara of the place, where Sikhs had collected for shelter, was attacked, and in one hour 800 Sikhs including women and children, were killed. Later almost the entire remaining Sikh population was killed also. The volume of Guru Granth Sahib was tom and desecrated. Looting continued for 3 days.

After Jokalian, the Hindus and Sikhs of Mitha Chak were given the ultimatum either to embrace Islam or to face death.

People of some forty villages were forcibly converted. (A list of these villages is included in the appendix containing summary of attacks).

The Hindus of village Ghanian were threatened by Muslims with dire consequences if they made common cause with the Sikhs. This left the Sikhs altogether friendless, as their number was already very small (about a dozen in all). Finding the situation grown desperate, these brave and unbending Sikhs killed their womenfolk with their own hands. After this the men gathered in a house, set fire to it and perished in the flames. The Muslims after the Sikhs had been finished, fell upon the Hindus who had so unwisely put trust in their promises, killed several and abducted sonic young women. These incidents occurred round about the 21st August.

Bharowal was attacked on the 17th August. Here a general massacre of Hindus and Sikhs occurred. Out of a total Hindu-Sikh population of 1,200 only 123 survived. Looting took place after this massacre on a very large scale.

Mandi Bahauddin is an important trading centre of Gujrat district. Here Muslim military came into operation early. Sikhs were taken out of their houses, bayoneted and otherwise tortured and forced to embrace Islam. The refugee camp established here was run on barbarous lines by the Muslim officials, and no torture and indignity was spared to the Sikhs. Piteous appeals for removal from this camp to India continued to come from Sikhs to the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee, the East Punjab Government and the Government of India.

At Dinga, a fairly large town, 3,300 Sikhs were killed.

In villages Shadiwal Kalan and Shadiwal Khurd, while Hindus were forced to accept Islam, all Sikhs were killed. These occurrences took place on the 18th and 19th August.

The Sikhs of Mangat, an important village were attacked on the 5th September. They gave a very stiff fight to the invaders and were later all evacuated to Mandi Bahauddin Refugee Camp, from where they were evacuated to India.

Hindu-Sikh refugees from Gujrat district, numbering 2,000 were being evacuated to India in trucks. Obstruction was placed in the way of these trucks near Kunjah bridge. The Indian Military escort accompanying these trucks fired on the Muslim assailants, cleared the point of obstruction and dispersed them (September 9). Later, these trucks were again attacked in the Mozang area of Lahore.

In Kotla Kasim Khan, on the 27th August a Muslim mob of 4,000 attacked Hindus and Sikhs. Many houses were burnt, 70 Hindus and Sikhs were killed and 30 were wounded. Even women and children were not spared, and were ruthlessly cut to pieces.

Kunjah, in Tehsil Phalia, was attacked towards the end of August. Here a large number of forcible conversions took place. Hindu and Sikh houses were forcibly occupied by Muslims. The Gurdwaras and their inmates were burned in flames. Not a single Sikh of this place was left alive.

In this district attacks on Hindus and Sikhs began in March, 1947. On the 26th March news came of serious and widespread attacks on Hindus and Sikhs in various places in this district. These attacks were not yet on the scale on which they occurred in Rawalpindi, but they still were serious. Earlier on the 11th March, Muslims attacked Mansehra but were dispersed.

On the 14th March attacks on Hindus and Sikhs and Hindu and Sikh shops were made in Khushab. Three Hindu Sadhus were murdered.

Trouble in the district continued, so that according to a news-item of the 11th July, the Muslims of Khushab were fined Rs. 50,000 for their continued attacks on Hindus and Sikhs. Many villages in this area were collectively fined for the same offence - the fines ranging from Rs. 500 to Rs. 3,000.

After July, for some days there was a comparative lull in this district. On the establishment of Pakistan, however, on the 16th August attacks on Hindus and Sikhs began again with full vigour. Trains running between Malakwal and Shorkot and Malakwal and Bhera were attacked and Hindu and Sikh passengers were looted and murdered. In the villages ultimatums were given to Hindus and Sikhs to embrace Islam or die. And in many cases the threat to kill was carried out on refusal to get converted. Even the converted were in many cases killed. Those who were not killed obstructions were placed in their way to be evacuated to India when Indian Military came to evacuate them. 325 such forcibly converted persons were found in Bandial alone.

In Bhalwal Tehsil, Bhera witnessed several stray murders of Hindus. In Lillani 10 Hindus were killed. 150 Hindus of Gondpur were murdered by order of a Sub-Inspector of Police, whose party looted all their belongings.

In Miani, which was attacked on the 10th September, 600 Hindus and Sikhs were murdered and 36 women were abducted. The estimated value of property looted is 50 lakhs.

From August 28 on up till about 10 days, Padhrar, Warcha, Jabbi, Khohri, Mitha Tiwana, Addi Kot, Girot, Mirpur and Thatta Shah Jamal were attacked. Hindus and Sikhs were killed in fairly large numbers and their belongings taken away. In several places young girls and women were abducted. In Mitha Tiwana 59 men were murdered and 17 girls were taken away.

Hindu and Sikh evacuees were not permitted to carry more than Rs. 15 each plus a few scanty belongings, such as the bedding of the season and a tumbler. No clothes other than they were wearing were permitted to be carried by them.

In Shahpur and Sargodha Tehsils incidents of murder and loot on varying scales occurred in almost all towns and villages.

A large number of those who were forcibly converted were compelled to marry away their daughters to Muslims, so that the girls so married and their families may not evacuate to India.

Residents of Chaks 45, 46, 19, 20, 26, 15, 37, 42, 44, 30, 36 etc., mostly Sikhs, were forced to quit their homes in a destitute state and they sought shelter in the Gujrat relief camp. The number of evacuees from these Chaks was about 9,000. Their evacuation was complete by the first week of September.

On the 27th August in Bhera several Hindu and Sikh shopkeepers were stabbed. Stabbing of Hindus and Sikhs continued for several days by moving parties of Muslim goondas. The Malakwal Hindus and Sikhs there forced to quit their homes after several cases of killing.

In Chaks 38B and 29 (both in Sargodha Tehsil) a large number of Sikhs were killed by the Muslim Military.

In Khiyali on the 16th August, a large number of Hindus and Sikhs were killed.

50,000 Sikh refugees from Sargodha were attacked at Tarakabad railway crossing in Lyallpur, with the active instigation of the Muslim Military escort. Many Sikhs were killed although they put up good resistance against their assailants.

 
 ^ contents ^ 

In Sind the Sikh population was not large, though the Hindus formed about 30% of-the population of the province. Out of the total non-Muslim population of 14 Lakhs, now¹ only about 2 lakhs are left in Sind, the rest having come to India as refugees. The turning out of non-Muslims from Sind is very amply illustrative of the naked policy of turning out of Hindus and Sikhs from Pakistan, for no other reason whatever except that they were not Muslims. There was a policy of systematic terrorization of Hindus. Their business premises were looted, their womenfolk molested, and the avenues of normal respectable life entirely closed to them. Thus, through terror and intimidation, within the period of less than a year twelve lakhs out of the fourteen lakhs of Hindus in Sind have been forced to migrate to India. This has happened in spite of the fact that in the words of Shri Mansukhani, Secretary, Sind Congress Refugee Relief Committee, New Delhi, “not one single Muslim lost his life at the hands of Hindus in any act of retaliation or self-defence, not to talk of any act of aggression; but where from the first day of the birth of Pakistan, Hindus have been systematically done to death, by the knife, by the bullet. by the throwing out of the windows and doors of running trains. The object has been one and the goal clear. Pakistan has desired that it should be a theocratic state in the sense that all its citizens should be Muslims. This battle has been remorselessly waged on one long front of Western Pakistan.”

Hindus’ houses were forcibly occupied, in Karachi and everywhere else, their property and land snatched from them, and no option left for them but to, seek a safer life free from unbearable indignities, in India.

Other portions from Shri Mansukhani’s article, quoted above. are: -

“Soon after August 15, 1947, was organised the ousting of Hindus and Sikhs from their residences and business premises, from their agricultural lands and industrial concerns.

“No Hindu’s house was his castle, he had to retreat at the point of the dagger and run away from the back-door. The Police of the Province and the War-time established Rent Control Department helped ‘legally’ to throw out the members of the minority community.

Traces of Hinduism Erased

“It is not an uncommon phenomenon for prominent Hindus who are sticking on to the soil of Sind to be accosted while going about even on the main streets by Muslims and threateningly asked to either embrace Islam or go out of Pakistan.

“Hindu passengers can travel by railway only for short journeys and during day time and that too at great risk of their lives.

Our Shrines

“Our Gurmandir in Karachi became lately the residence of Sydney Cotton, the smuggler of arms to Nizam’s Hyderabad of yesterday. Most of our religious places, shrines, temples and Gurdwaras have been occupied by Muslims. The scriptures have been destroyed and the valuables have been pilfered and safely appropriated. Some of these places have also been turned into mosques where the Faithful congregate and read their Friday prayers to Allah. All educational institutions are similarly occupied and converted into the Schools and Colleges for Muslims.”

(“The Tribune”-January 16, 1949)

As for the Sikhs, their elimination and extermination began at about the same time as in West Punjab. By August all Sikhs in large towns had left Sind, and came over to the Punjab. It was not infrequent for trains carrying these Sikh refugees to be attacked on the way. On the 2nd of August, Sikhs were attacked in several villages in Nawabshah District.

On the 1st September, 1947 one train was stopped at Nawabshah, and the Sikh passengers attacked. Of these 15 were killed, and 17 injured.

The only Sikhs in Sind after August, were those in the interior - small tradesmen, pedlars and craftsmen. These began to be evacuated. Their condition was described in news agency reports as being extremely miserable and pitiable, as they could not ply any trade, and were in the last stage of destitution.

So much were the Muslims indoctrinated with the gospel of hate preached over years by the Muslim League, that on the 6th January, 1948, long after killing had stopped in East Punjab, a terrible massacre of evacuee Sikhs, awaiting embarkation for India occurred at Karachi. That this was no isolated incident of its kind in Pakistan is witnessed by the terrible Gujrat massacre of the 11th January, 1948, and the Parachinar massacre of the 23rd January, 1948. These three huge massacres of Sikhs and Hindus occurred in such quick succession at a time when all attacks on the Muslims in Indian territory had ceased three months before.

Certain details of this above mentioned Karachi massacre are of interest as revealing the conspiracy, cynicism and heartlessness of the Government of Pakistan, in the matter of getting Sikhs murdered.

As for the details of the massacre, the District Magistrate’s report from Karachi is reproduced below:

“Communal trouble started in Karachi today when 184 Sikhs arrived from Shikarpur by the morning train. From the station they went to a Gurdwara near Ratan Talao. A mob of nearly 8,000 gathered on the arrival of the Sikhs and surrounded the Gurdwara and set fire to it, and started stabbing and killing and a number of persons² were killed,”

In the town of Karachi ‘there was looting in several quarters and there were four cases of arson.”³

There was looting on the next day as well, in the houses of Hindus. The situation was described in ‘an appeal’, issued by the Editors of several Karachi newspapers as ‘appalling’ while admitting that some Muslims gave shelter to ‘the Hindu victims of mob frenzy.’

In the Gurdwara, where the massacre took place, women and children were also killed, as admitted by the Sind Premier in his statement.

The result of the disturbances of January 6 was described in ‘The Civil and Military Gazette’ in these words:

“There was negligible loss of life suffered by the minority community (Hindus) compared to the looting that took place throughout the city…… The lives of members of the minority community (Hindus) were saved at the expense of their property.”

About 10,000 Hindus had to be kept in refugee camps, and Hindus had to be evacuated early to India, to save them from being murdered by Muslims. Looting went on uninterruptedly. So bold and open was this loot, that police and employees of the Chief Court of Sind openly participated in it. The Chief Court building was used as a dump for this loot. The Chief justice, an Englishman, his patience exhausted, had at last to intervene and stop the loot from being stacked at least in the Chief Court Building. This was the limit of the collapse of the law and good government in Pakistan.

Further facts in the situation are:

(1) About 800 Sikhs were killed in Karachi and not 184, as stated in the Pakistan communique.

(2) Not a word of regret was expressed by any responsible person in Pakistan over this tremendous loss of Sikh life. The Sind Premier made only the insulting statement that the sight of these Sikhs ‘provoked’ the Muslims and only added the still more insulting directive that Sikhs be not brought to Karachi ‘in open carriages.’ The Premier’s statement also makes it clear that no police precautions were taken for the protection of these Sikhs, whose lives were evidently so cheap that any one was at liberty to take them without the Pakistan Government moving its little finger.

The Governor-General of Pakistan, Mr. Jinnah, who sent a message of sympathy for the sufferers, did not so much as mention the Sikhs, who had been killed in overwhelming numbers. All that he said was that he had sympathy for the Hindus in their losses.

This was symptomatic of the attitude of the Pakistan Government, which did not regard Sikh life as worthy of any kind of protection and as meriting any sympathy.

The masses in Pakistan knew very well what their Government thought of any attack made on the Sikhs.

Jinnah’s statement was, furthermore an attempt to create a rift between Hindus and Sikhs, which the Muslims have been trying to, by posing to dislike the Hindus less than the Sikhs.

All these happenings occurred at a time when in India, Mahatma Gandhi undertook his last fast to get better treatment for the Indian Muslims. That was the response in Pakistan to the Mahatma’s gesture, and the faithfully carrying out of the Mahatma’s instructions by Hindus and Sikhs. Exactly when Delhi was being made safe for Muslims, in Karachi 800 Sikhs were massacred, and all Hindus looted and despoiled, had to move into refugee camps.

Footnotes:

 
 ^ contents ^ 

Pakistan propagandists, in order to hide the shameful crimes of the Muslim League leaders, a part of whose programme it was to carve out a purely Muslim State and to eliminate religious minorities from it, have put forth a mischievous piece of propaganda that Sikhs (and by implication Hindus as well) left Pakistan by a design. Mat this ‘Design’ could have been passes ordinary human comprehension. The official Pakistan propaganda pamphlet contains this fantastic view:

“Sikhs ... stayed behind in Lyallpur till after the Partition and then (were) deliberately evacuated by Sikh leaders to East Punjab without any apparent immediate cause, seems to point out to a revision of the ‘Plan’ necessitated by some unexpected sequence of events.”

This remark contains several pieces of deliberate falsehoods and a lot of suppressio veri, besides mischievous suggestions. Let us analyse it here:

(a) Sikhs stayed behind lit Lyallpur till after Pakistan. Does the writer imply that it had already before the partition been decided upon by Muslim Leaguers that no Sikhs were to stay in West Punjab after Partition, and that in view of such a Scheme it was surprising for any Sikhs to have stayed in any parts of Pakistan after August, 1947? It is obvious that no one. the Sikhs least of all, expected or anticipated anything like the total exchange of population which actually occurred. All decent people expected that on the establishment of Pakistan its leaders would afford equal protection to all its citizens, irrespective of creed, like all good Governments. That is why Sikh and Hindu leaders (see later in this chapter) exhorted Sikhs and Hindus to stay on in their homes in Pakistan. So, Sikhs continued to stay in all parts of Pakistan except in the rural areas of Rawalpindi, Campbellpore, Jhelum and Multan Districts. They stayed there because these places were their ancestral homes. The question of any Sikhs ‘staying behind’ could riot arise, unless it was arranged by Muslim Leaguers, as of course it was, that no Sikhs be left in Pakistan. On August 15 all Sikhs excepting in specific areas of the districts mentioned, were in Pakistan.

(b) “Deliberately evacuated.” How in the name of sense and reasonableness Sikhs were evacuated because decent normal life was rendered impossible for them by the deliberate policy of massacre, loot and dishonouring of women adopted by Muslims in all parts of Pakistan. Why the Sikhs evacuated is answered by the last words in this very sentence quoted above ... “necessitated by some unexpected sequence of events.” This “unexpected sequence of events” was the hell which was let loose on Sikhs right from the 15th of August, and which fiendish activity became operative in Lyallpur not long after this.

(c) If Sikhs (of Lyallpur) left because of some plan, then why did Sikhs of other districts leave? And why did Hindus leave? Did they too leave in sympathy with the Sikh ‘Plan’ of evacuation, supposing for the sake of fantastic arguing that such a ‘Plan’ wherein evacuation for no reason was involved, could have existed?

Muslim League leaders had long advocated exchange of population between Muslim and non-Muslim India. All those who advocated the establishment of a Muslim State also advocated as its necessary corollary the exchange of population. Rahmat Ali, Syed Abdul Latif, Mr. Jinnah, all these have been quoted earlier to have expressed strong and unmistakable views on this question of exchange of Muslim and non-Muslim populations so as to make the Muslim State more homogeneous, and to solve the minority problem. Mr. Jinnah said, referring to the driving out of Hindus from Noakhali, that it was already transfer of population in action, and some machinery should be devised for effecting it peacefully and on a large scale. Though, it may be said here that this exchange was no real exchange - it was all the driving out of non-Muslims from Muslim majority zones, while Muslims, except for the isolated case of Bihar, where the Hindu riots were ruthlessly suppressed by the Congress Hindu Government and Pt. Nehru, everywhere were safe.

When Pakistan became a serious political proposition after H. M. G. statement of February 20, 1947 and progressively as August, 15, 1947 approached, the Muslim pace of eliminating non-Muslims from Pakistan was accelerated, till just on the eve of August 15 and after, it became a ruthless driving out, an all-out campaign.

Sikhs and Hindus could not have desired such an exchange. They would rather have preferred, and they actually did prefer, to stay on in Pakistan. They decided to join the Constituent Assembly, to continue in their occupations, business and services, and to stay in its territory with their women, children and possessions.

In order to realize the improbable and fantastic nature of the supposed Sikh attempt at leaving Pakistan in order to live under Indian rule, one has only to look at the sacrifices it would involve on the part of the Sikhs to make such a transmigration. These losses would be:

(1) Sikhs would leave behind vast lands, business, factories and institutions, for which a very poor substitute both in quantity and value could be found out of Muslim property in East Punjab.

(2) Land in East Punjab is poor, when compared with West Punjab. Even of this poor land, Muslims being mostly of the poorer classes and lower castes, had the least productive patches. These alone could be given to Sikhs if they decided to come out of Pakistan.

(3) Sikhs left behind in West Punjab their most sacred shrines, which would be ruined and desecrated if no Sikh was left in West Punjab.

So, it is not difficult, by the evidence of what Sikhs and Hindus had to leave in Pakistan, to show that they could not have left their rich possessions and their revered shrines just for a whim, fancy, or even for a political stake. Whole nations of millions do riot uproot themselves so lightly: even for political ideals - individuals and small groups may. If they bid good-bye to all that is cherished and valued by them, it is because to hold on to them is made impossible by powerful causes. And such causes were provided by Pakistan tyranny.

Hindus and Sikhs left behind in Pakistan fourteen hundred crores worth of property, innumerable banks, factories, works, business houses, their assets, lands, houses, gardens, more than five million acres of fertile land, their institutions, magnificent hospitals and what is more, their historic and sacred shrines, dearer than life. Did they want to ‘ruin’ Pakistan by having several lakhs of themselves killed, maimed, forcibly converted, their womenfolk dishonoured, their children cut to pieces and having fifty thousand girls abducted? Why, in the name of sense, if the Hindus and Sikhs wanted to migrate, did they not migrate while it was still somewhat safe to migrate - that is, before August 15, 1947. What were Hindus and Sikhs waiting for till then? After June 3 anyway, it was clear to the meanest intelligence that Pakistan would be established. Far from wishing to migrate from West Punjab, Hindus and Sikhs of the West Punjab decided to become citizens of Pakistan, and actually elected their representatives to the Pakistan Constituent Assembly. This does not look like migrating, but like staying on and obeying the laws of the new State. The total number of Hindus and Sikhs who migrated from the Western Districts of the Punjab east, prior to August would be less than a million. To put it at that would be making a very generous estimate. It was after August 15, when safety of life in Pakistan was rendered impossible that the forty-five lakhs of Hindus and Sikhs of the West Punjab, the entire Hindu and Sikh population of the North-Western Frontier Province, of Baluchistan and Bahawalpur, along with twelve lakh Hindus of Sind, left their ancestral homes to seek safety in India. Not only that, many Christians were forced out of Pakistan and many untouchables. From the other end of Pakistan too thousands of miles away, from East Bengal, as many as twenty-five lakhs of Hindus had to migrate to India. Even in a credulous world it Is somewhat hard to swallow that all these people, over a crore in number, chose to be poor and miserable only for the pleasure of seeing Pakistan go ruined economically.

In reality, such fantastic things are being said by Pakistan only to cover up their own conspiracy and crimes against Hindus and Sikhs, whom they persecuted, harassed and with murder, rape, arson and loot drove out of Pakistan. Here are a few grounds for believing that Sikhs and Hindus left Pakistan under very great duress, and that they were extremely unhappy to do so, as this coming away lost to them all that was precious to them in the material and spiritual way.

Exchange of population or even driving out of Hindu and Sikh population from the Muslim State has from the beginning been inherent in the very conception of the State of Pakistan. This has been amply argued in the opening chapter. When Pakistan was established, this inevitable finale to the process of its establishment was executed with equal zeal and collaboration by the people (Muslims) and. Government of Pakistan. The process of elimination of minorities went on without check by the Muslim police, officials and military. On the contrary, they abetted the process. No responsible Pakistan or Muslim League leaders condemned such attacks on Hindus and Sikhs. Governor Mudie of West Punjab revealed in his letter to Mr. Jinnah his determination to throw Sikhs out of Pakistan at all costs (The full text of this letter appears in the Appendix. Excerpts from it have been quoted in two places, earlier.) Jinnah did not have a word to utter about the murder of over 800 Sikhs in Karachi on the 6th January, 1948. Nor for the matter of that, a word about the massacres of Noakhali, the North-Western Frontier Province, Rawalpindi, Multan or any other.

Pakistan Press and its leaders openly advocated the elimination of Sikhs from Pakistan. Zafar Ali’s verse ‘Koi Sikh rehne na pae Maghribi Punjab men’ has already been quoted. The tempo of hate against Sikhs was deliberately raised, in order to incite the Muslim masses to drive them speedily out of West Punjab.

Driving Hindus and Sikhs from Pakistan would bring great wealth into Muslim hands. This wealth has been estimated at fourteen hundred crores in value. It includes fifty-five lakh acres of rich land, good, firmly built houses, many factories and works, institutions, innumerable shops rich in merchandise and stores and godowns full of materials whose price runs into crores upon crores of rupees. Besides these there are hundreds of well established schools, many colleges, hospitals, charitable institutions and libraries. In the banks in West Punjab, Safe Deposit Lockers alone contained valuables worth about two hundred crores. All this was Hindu-Sikh property. And it had to be left behind.

As against all this, the total Muslim assets in the East Punjab do not come to more than two hundred and fifty crores. It would have been madness for Hindus and Sikhs to have left their own magnificent possessions for the beggarly Muslim assets, and to make a gift of all that they had to Pakistan.

Sikhs have left their richest lands in West Punjab. It was their labour which turned the jungles (Bars) of Lyallpur, Montgomery, and Sheikhupura into rich wheat-producing land. The industry and tenacity of Sikhs made them masters of vast cultivated areas, many times those possessed by Muslims in Districts where Muslims were in a majority in population. Take the case of Lahore. Here Sikhs were only 18.32% in the population. Yet according to the settlement report of the Lahore District by Mr. G. H. B. Abell, I.C.S.

“About 66.7% of the cultivated land (in Lahore District) is in the hands of the Jats, the great majority of whom are Sikhs. They are commonly of very fine physique and often blessed with brains as well. They represent a magnificent supply of human material. They could be and upto a point are, a very great asset to the District and the Punjab. The communal majority in the District belongs to the Muslims…… and the typical zamindar of the district is Sikh Jat.”

A glance at the land-revenue paid by Muslims and non-Muslims in some of the Muslim majority districts will show the relative position of Hindus and Sikhs as proprietors, and will totally falsify any notion that Hindus and Sikhs left these districts voluntarily, and not under extreme duress.

Apart from these facts, the following claims made in the Sikh memorandum to the Punjab Boundary Commission, in June, 1947 will give an idea of the extent of Hindu and Sikh interest in the Western Punjab, which these communities -would not lightly give up, unless compelled by overwhelming factors:

In the Lahore Division as a whole Sikhs paid 46% of the total land-revenue.

¹ “Reference may be made to The Punjab Peasant by Sir Malcolm Darling, formerly Financial Commissioner of the Punjab. At page 41 of this book he observes: “We now enter the heart of the Punjab, the tract from the Jhelum in the north to a little beyond the Sutlej in the south. It contains all that is most characteristic of the Province. It is the cradle of the Sikhs and hundred years ago was the mainstay of Ranjit Singh and his power.” At page l22 of the same book the author observes: “The peasant proprietor is the backbone of the colonies as he is of the Punjab. In the Lyallpur colony he holds about 80% of the land and in Shahpur nearly as much. In the latter he was mainly recruited from Northern Districts but in the former almost entirely from the central Punjab. A colony could hardly have had better material, for Ludhiana, Jullundur and Amritsar represent the flower of the Indian Agriculture. They are the home of the Jat Sikh who has been described as ‘the most desirable of colonists.’

“(In the matter of developing Colony Lands) the Jat Sikh has reached a point of development probably beyond anything else of the kind in India. In less than a generation he has made the wilderness blossom like the rose. It is as if the energy of the virgin soil of the Bar had passed into his veins and made him almost a part of the forces of nature which he has conquered. It is clear that the Jat Sikh from the central districts of the Punjab has been very largely responsible for the building up of the colony areas of Lyallpur and Montgomery in the Punjab, which form the granary of a large part of India. It may further be mentioned that the Sikhs in the central Divisions of the Punjab have largest Agricultural interests of all other communities put together.

“The number of peasant proprietors in Lahore District is 1,46,522 and the cultivable area is 15,78,734 acres. The Muslim peasant proprietors number 41,029 holding 3,78,047 acres. The number of Sikh peasant proprietors, on the other hand, is 83,585 and they hold 10,01,438 acres.

² “The city of Lahore consisted of the old walled town, Anarkali, Civil Lines and scattered houses here and there along the Lower Mall. Lahore began to expand in 1914 and the house building activity in Lahore received great impetus in the years 1929-37. The new Abadies (settlements) which come into existence since 1913 are Ramgali, Gwalmandi, Nisbet Road area, Rishi Nagar, Sant Nagar, Ram Nagar, Krishan Nagar, Janak Nagar, Qila Lachhman Singh, Qasurpura and Mohammad Nagar. Most of these Abadies are situate to the east and west of Lower Mall, skirting round it from almost Ravi Bridge to Nawankot. The other new settlements of importance are New Mozang, Islamia Park, Chauburji Gardens, Arya Nagar, Muslim Town, Garden Town, Model Town, Canal Park, Wasanpura, Dharampura, Misri Shah, Bharat Nagar, Singhpura and Ramgarh. A prominent feature of the new Abadis around old Lahore is that their growth has been on communal lines and that most of these Abadis are predominantly Hindu and Sikh.

“A survey of Lahore carried out by the Punjab Government Board of Economic Inquiry gives the number of dwellings, their average monthly rent, ownership by communities, and distribution by localities. The survey shows that the total value of all dwelling houses owned by non-Muslims within the Corporation limits amounts to 12,27,64,800 rupees, whereas the total value of dwelling houses owned by Muslims amounts to 8.20,99,200. A complete census of the shops and commercial establishments was also taken by the Board of Economic Inquiry. The percentage of shops owned by non-Muslims in the walled city comes to 63. The percentage of outer Lahore comes to 67. The total number of shops in Greater Lahore, is 5,332 of which non-Muslims own 3.501.

Factories in Lahore

³ “The Survey shows that out of a total number of 218 Registered Factories working in Greater Lahore in the year 1943-44 as many as 173 or 80% belong to non-Muslims. The total fixed capital invested in these factories amounted to a sum of Rs. 2 crores 40.27 lakhs. Of this the Muslim investment amounted only to 58.91 lakhs of rupees. Taking the figures of total capital investment, fixed plus circulating, we find that the total capital invested in the Registered factories in Greater Lahore amounted to Rs. 6.29 crores. The non-Muslim share in this total investment was Rs. 5.12 crores.

“Lahore is an important banking and commercial centre and the money market in Lahore is fairly well developed. The Head Offices of as many as 26 Banks belonging to non-Muslim are located in Lahore. The total number of Bank Offices working in Lahore at present, however, is 90. Of the banks and branches at Lahore, only three belong to Muslims.

“There are 80 offices of Insurance Companies in Lahore, 15 of them are Head Offices of such Companies. Of the Insurance Companies and offices only two belong to Muslims.

“Lahore is an important educational centre of the province. The educational development has been very largely due to non-Muslim enterprise. The non-Muslim share in the promotion and development of educational institutions is stupendous. There are at present in Lahore as many as 270 educational institutions, recognised by the Education Department or affiliated to the Punjab University. Of this about 100 institutions are devoted to female education. The number of male students in these institutions is 64,902 and women students 23,447. Of the 12 Arts and Science Colleges at Lahore, giving education to 10,647 students, only one is run by the Muslims and one by the Government. The other 10 are run by non-Muslims. There are 15 professional colleges imparting education to 2,620 students. Of this number excluding three colleges run by the Government, all are run by non-Muslims. Of the 36 High Schools, imparting education to 26,647 students, only four are run by Muslims.

“The total number of hospitals run on the modern allopathic lines in Lahore is 12. In addition there are four hospitals run on the indigenous methods of medicine. Not a single hospital run on modern allopathic, or on the indigenous lines is run by the Muslims.

⁴ “As stated above 90% of the colonists who came to colonise this tract in the Sheikhupura district and Lyallpur district hailed from Ambala, Ludhiana, Jullundur, Hoshiarpur, Amritsar, Gurdaspur and Ferozepur districts. The towns of Gujranwala, Lyallpur, Gojra, Samundri and Toba Tek Singh are situate in this tract. There is an overwhelming non-Muslim population in these towns and the market is controlled by non-Muslims.

“The Sikhs played a major part in the development of the rural area of this part and the urban area was built up mainly by the enterprise of Hindus. It would be correct to say that almost the entire trade, commerce and industry of the Lyallpur district and the portion of the Sheikhupura sub-district is in the hands of non-Muslims. In Lyallpur District in the year 1945-46 the non-Muslims paid Urban Immovable property Tax in the amount of Rs. 1,40,300 whereas the Muslims paid Rs. 22,900. The amount of Sales Tax paid by the non-Muslims in 1945-46 was Rs. 3,08,000 as compared to Rs. 17,000 paid by the Muslims. The Income Tax paid by the non-Muslims amounted to Rs. 59,50,000 as compared to Rs. 5,00,000 paid by the Muslims. Of the total number of 72 Registered factories in Lyallpur District, 57 factories are run by non-Muslims and only 15 by Muslims.

“The tract mentioned above, comprising parts of Sheikhupura, Gujranwala and Lyallpur district is one contiguous tract and is Popularly known as the Shahidi Bar. In the preceding paragraphs an account has been given of the Sikh share in the development of this tract and there is no gainsaying that but for the Sikh enterprise the rural areas in this tract would not have been developed and but for the Hindu-Sikh enterprise the markets in this tract would not have flourished.

“The peasant-proprietors again play a dominant role in the economic life of Shakargarh Sub-District. Out of the total area of this sub-district the non-Muslims own 1,72,111 acres of land as against 96,958 acres owned by the Muslims. Again the non-Muslims pay Rs. 4,45,000 on account of Land revenue in this sub-District as against a sum of Rs. 1,62,379 paid by the Muslims. The total number of villages of Shakargarh Sub-District is 744 and of this number the non-Muslim villages are 408 as against 311 Muslim villages, the remaining 25 villages are mixed.

“The non-Muslims of Shakargarh Sub-District own the major portion of the urban property in the Sub-District and pay a greater portion of the taxes. As against Rs. 5,485 paid as Hasiyat Tax by the non-Muslims the Muslims pay only Rs. 2,943. The Income Tax figures for the sub-district show that no part of this amount is paid by the Muslims. Kartarpur, a place sacred to the memory of Baba Nanak is situated within the limits of Shakargarh sub-district.

“Adjoining the trans-Ravi tract of Gurdaspur District in the preceding paragraphs is the Narowal Tehsil of Sialkot District. The population of Narowal Sub-District is 2,67,598, and out of this population the Muslims are 1,46,982, the rest being non-Muslims. The cultivable area in this sub-district is 2,61,378 acres and annual land revenue assessed thereon amounts to 3,95,768 rupees. This would show that the economic interests of the non-Muslims in this sub-district of Sialkot District outweigh the economic interests of the Muslims. This argument is reinforced by the voting strength of the Muslims and non-Muslims for the District Board elections. The electoral rolls of the Narowal Sub-District for the District Board elections would show that there are 16,031 non-Muslims voters as against 12,895 Muslim voters. The income-tax figures show a greater disparity, the non-Muslims paying annually Rs. 18,523-4-0 as against Rs. 2,716-1-0 paid by the Muslims.

To the facts enumerated above must be added the fact that in Montgomery, Sheikhupura, Gujranwala, Gujrat, Jhelum, Rawalpindi and Multan Districts Hindus and Sikhs had a large number of factories, banks, business firms, urban housing property, schools, colleges and charitable institutions which outnumbered the Muslim interest in these respects many times over in spite of the fact that the Muslims in all these districts were in an overwhelming majority in the population.

In the whole of the present West Punjab Districts, there were only two Muslim Colleges - the Islamia College at Lahore and the Zamindara College at Gujrat. As against this, there were about twenty non-Muslim colleges, including a first rate Medical College and an efficient College of Engineering. There were a large number of non-Muslim institutions also not affiliated to the University. In the matter of schools, the same proportion works out.

Sikhs have some of their most sacred Gurdwaras in the West Punjab. The freedom of these Gurdwaras and access to them for purposes of worship forms the sorest point of grievance which the Sikhs have at present against the Pakistan Government, and what is regarded as the easy attitude which the Indian Government is adopting with regard to this matter so deeply vital to Sikh religious sentiment.

The holiest of the holy of the Sikhs, Nanakana Sahib, birthplace of Guru Nanak - analogous to the Mecca of the Muslims and Jerusalem of the Christians. This Gurdwara also had a vast estate, developed along model lines as a farming colony, and it yielded an annual revenue to the Sikh community of about 20 lakhs of rupees.

There is then the famous Gurdwara Dehra Sahib in Lahore, site of martyrdom of Sri Guru Arjan Dev. There is the famous Shahidgunj, sacred in Sikh history as the place where the pioneer upholders of the Sikh Creed suffered torture and death at Muslim hands.

In Rawalpindi district there is the Panja Sahib Gurdwara, sanctified by Guru Nanak, and so is the famous Babe di Ber in Sialkot. In Gujranwala District is Eminabad. In Lahore District is Kartarpur, a place where Guru Nanak resided for a considerable time.

Besides these more famous Gurdwaras, there are hundreds of other shrines, associated with the Sikh Gurus, with holy men and with events in Sikh history.

There are then places associated with Sikh history, such as the Mausoleum of Maharaja Ranjit Singh in Lahore and his birthplace in Gujranwala. Sikh history and the dearest association of the Sikhs are enshrined in these places.

To think that Sikhs and Hindus would leave en masse all that has been mentioned above, if it had been possible for them to retain these, is fantastic nonsense, worthy only of the mendacions propagandists of Pakistan.

After the establishment of Pakistan, a systematic campaign of hounding Hindus and Sikhs out of Pakistan was initiated by the Muslim League, of course with the connivance of the Government. Various links in this campaign are these.

(a) Governor Mudie’s letter to Mr. Jinnah (in the appendix).

(b) Orders of the Deputy Commissioner of Montgomery that no Sikhs are to be spared. The following statement made by a Hindu Magistrate in a court of law will bear out this:

Statement of Shri P. L. Sondhi, M. I C., Ferozepore, recorded by me in the presence of Shri Banwari Lal, P. A. to D. C. and S. Mohan Singh Batra, M. I C. Fazilka on solemn affirmation.

“About the last week of August, 1947, I was awaiting to be evacuated to East Punjab after I had received my posting orders to Ferozepur. I do not actually remember the date but it was on the 23rd, 24th or the 25th of August, 1947 that I happened to attend a joint meeting of the Magistracy and Police held in the Court room of Raja Hassan Akhtar, P. C. S. Deputy Commissioner, Montgomery at about 4 P.M. The D. C. in my presence gave unambiguous orders to his Magistrates and Police Officers who were present, that they must not spare any Sikh and kill or shoot him at sight and that the Hindus may be spared for the time being. I was the only non-Muslim Magistrate who attended the meeting.

“I made a similar statement before the S. D. O. Moga on or about the 30th August, 1947. I happened to meet the D. C., Ferozepore on 3-4-48, who has recently taken charge of - this District, when I narrated to him my experiences in Montgomery just before my evacuation. I told him about the above facts and he asked me to make this statement in the presence of three Magistrates in Court of the Additional District Magistrate, Ferozepore which I have hereby done.”

(c) The District Magistrate of Mianwali fixed dates and a time-table for the evacuation of Hindus and Sikhs from his district. Other Magistrates doubtlessly did the same.

(d) The District Magistrate, Sheikhupura, where the biggest massacres of all of Hindus and Sikhs took place, was an active party to all that happened (vide statement of S. Gurdial Singh, Tehsildar of Sheikhupura, later posted at Zira, Ferozepore District, in the appendix).

(e) Notices were served on non-Muslim shopkeepers and others to quit Pakistan. In this connection the following revealed by the Indian Liaison Officer at Lahore will be illuminating:-

Office of the Chief Liaison Officer, East Punjab Govt.,

I forward a copy of notice entitled “Quit Pakistan.” Such notices are being received by non-Muslim shopkeepers. They get very panic striken and most of them are leaving their shops. I do not know what action you c n take in the matter but I thought I should let you know that a large number of non-Muslims, who receive such notices do not dare to open their premises. The one, of which I am sending you the copy, was addressed to the Proprietor, Indian Stationery Shop, Hospital Road, Lahore, and was delivered by post. The original envelope and the notice are in my possession.

No. 119/CLO/3

Copy with a copy of the notice to the Chief Secretary to Government, East Punjab, Camp Jullundur for information.

“You have been earmarked to quit Pakistan at your earliest possible. If you don’t follow this warning, none but you yourself will be responsible for the consequences.

Public don’t want you to be here as fifth columnist and it would be unwise on your part to seek for Government protection which would be of no use at this stage.⁵

Pakistan

No Hindu or Sikh public leader ever advocated migration from Western Punjab or for the matter of that from any part of Pakistan, till it became absolutely apparent, after August 15, that life with any degree of honour had been rendered impossible in Pakistan for Hindus and Sikhs. Below are given in detail pronouncements of Sikh and Hindu leaders and newspapers advocating that Hindus and Sikhs must not quit their homes in the Muslim majority areas. These pronouncements range from the 9th April (more than a month after the Amritsar, Rawalpindi and Multan terrors) upto the 12th August, 1947 (the date on which Lahore was a shambles for Hindus and Sikhs). Below are these pronouncements.

Tribune: 31-5-47.
Mrs. Sucheta Kriplani appealing to the refugees at Wah on 30-5-47 advised them not to leave their hearths and homes as this would spoil their cases against real culprits.

Vir Bharat: 16-6-47.
The Frontier Hindu-Sikh Relief Committee issued an appeal to the Hindus and Sikhs of Peshawar and N.-W. F. P. to return to their homes.

Ajit: 16-6-47.
L. Kotu Ram, M. L. A. of Bannu in a press statement appealed to his co-religionists to return to their homes.

Tribune: 29-6-47.
Master Tara Singh contradicted the rumour in a statement to Associated Press of India on 26-647 that he had advised Sikhs of West Punjab to come to East Punjab. He said that he was of the considered opinion that non-Muslims of Western Punjab should continue to stay on in their homes.

Vir Bharat: 29-647.
S. Ajit Singh the renowned patriot appealed to the Hindus and Sikhs not to leave their homes.

Tribune: 4-7-47.
Sardar Patel and S. Baldev Singh assured a Sikh deputation from Rawalpindi to stick to their homes in Pakistan as they would enter into a treaty with Pakistan Government for protection and safeguarding the interests of minorities in Pakistan.

Vir Bharat: 4-7-47.
L. Dev Raj Sethi, M.L.A. (Congress) in a statement on 3-7-47 stated that exodus was harmful and suggested that the people should resolve to stick to the soil in which they were rooted.

Vir Bharat: 4-7-47.
Acharya Kriplani, Congress President assured the minorities in India that they would never be treated as foreigners and they would be given every assistance in the safeguarding of their interests.

Vir Bharat: 9-4-47.
S. Jagjit Singh Man, M.L.A., in a press statement exhorted the Hindus and Sikhs who had migrated from the riot-affected areas of Jhelum and Rawalpindi to return to their homes.

Vir Bharat: 9-4-47.
The Rawalpindi Relief Committee in a press statement advised the Hindus and Sikhs to stick to their homes.

Tribune: 13-4-47.
S. Partap Singh, M.L.A., member of the Congress High Command (later Minister, East Punjab Government) in an appeal to riot-striken people in the Punjab on 10-4-47 asked them to remember that unorganised migration of any people from the area where their ancestors had lived would add to the difficulties of every one.

Tribune: 19-4-47.
S. Sawarn Singh, President of the Punjab Riot Sufferers Relief Committee in a statement issued on 17-4-47 asked people not to migrate to places outside Rawalpindi Division, but to settle down at the various centres which Government had decided to protect.

Vir Bharat: 6-5-47.
Jathedar Mohan Singh, President, Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee, Amritsar, in a statement to the press advised the refugees not to leave their homes and particularly they should not go out of the Punjab.

Tribune: 26-5-47.
Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar Patel in an interview to Rana Jang Bahadur Singh, Editor of the Tribune, on 24-5-47 advised people through him not to be panicky and to stick to places and face the situation bravely.

Ajit: 8-7-47.
In the public meeting at Tarn Taran, the Hon’ble Sir Buta Singh, Member Council of State, S. Surjit Singh, M.L.A. (Central) S. Jaswant Singh Jhabal, Jathedar Sohan Singh Jalalusman and other Sikh leaders exhorted the audience to protect the life and property of minorities.

Vir Bharat: 8-7-47.
L. Avtar Narain, Vakil of Jhelum, Member, Constituent Assembly of Pakistan, in a press statement exhorted the minorities in Pakistan that they should not leave their hearths and homes and should become good citizens of Pakistan.

Vir Bharat: 8-7-47.
At a minorities convention held at Rawalpindi on 7-7-43 Dewan Pindi Dass Sabharwal and S. Sant Singh exhorted the minorities to stick to their homes. L. Bhim Sen Sachar, L. Avtar Narain, Dr. Lehna Singh, Parbodh Chandra M.L.A. and Fazal Elahi M.L.A. (Christian) participated.

Vir Bharat: 8-7-47.
In his prayer speech Mahatma Gandhi reiterated that every Indian should be treated equally and that the question of migration of minorities does not arise.

Bharat: 10-7-47.
Goswami Ganesh Dutt sent a message to the minorities convention at Rawalpindi exhorting the Hindus and Sikhs of Pakistan to stick to their homes.

Vir Bharat: 3-7-47.
Mr. Mehr Chand Khanna, Finance Minister, N.-W. F. P. exhorted the Hindus and Sikhs who had migrated from N.-W F. P. to return to their homes.

Vir Bharat: 15-7-47.
Dr. Gopi Chand Bhargava, Leader, Congress Assembly Party wrote to Khan Iftikhar Hussain Khan Mamdot, President, Punjab Muslim League to try to rehabilitate the riot sufferers of March in their original homes.

Vir Bharat: 17-7-47.
S. Ajit Singh, Minister, N.-W. F. P. in a press statement advised the Hindus and Sikhs of Pakistan to rely on statements of Mr. Jinnah and to stick to their homes. The minorities, he added should be loyal citizens of Pakistan.

Vir Bharat: 25-7-47.
The Hindu-Sikh Defence Committee of N.-W. F. P. issued a press appeal to the Hindus and Sikhs that they should not migrate from their homes and at their meeting they passed a resolution to a similar effect.

Vir Bharat: 1-8-47 and Tribune: 1-8-47.
Mahatma Gandhi during his visit to Rawalpindi gave instructions to Congress workers and said that they were still citizens of both Dominions and would remain so after 15-8-47 as well. He advised people not to migrate from their homes.

Tribune: 4-8-47.
Acharya Kriplani, President of the Congress told a press conference that all citizens of a particular area must be loyal to the administration and give it their honourable co-operation. He was against migration.

Tribune: 8-8-47.
Mahatma Gandhi advised Congressmen who met him at the residence of Mrs. Rameshwari Nehru at Lahore on 6-8-47 that they should die with dying Lahore.

Civil and Military Gazette: 12-8-47.
In a press appeal to the people on 10-8-47 in Lahore Sardar Sawaran Singh said, “In spite of the division of the country all of us Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs--have to live together. Let us, therefore, live in peace so that the poor and the down-trodden may in the new freedom that we have achieved get enough to eat and to cover their naked bodies, leading to a happier and fuller life.”

Not only the Hindus and Sikhs, but even Christians did not find it easy to stay in Pakistan. That is because in the State of Pakistan, which Mr. Jinnah, speaking at Kingsway Hall, London in December, 1946 said, would contain one hundred million, all Muslims, can have no place in it for any non-Muslims. The following reports will make clear the plight of Christians in Pakistan:

(1) Mr. William Joseph, President, All-Pakistan Christian League, Lahore, has, on Saturday issued the following statement to the press. “In spite of the assurance given by the Qaid-i-Azam Christians are being ill-treated in the West Punjab. The rights of the Christians are being crushed in every form of life. We have, again and again, made representations to the Prime Minister of Pakistan and to the West Punjab Cabinet for our protection.”

Impartial observers everywhere have felt that in the exchange of population Sikhs were terribly hard hit. It would be fantastic to imagine that Sikhs would invite these hardships on themselves unless it was absolutely impossible to live in Pakistan. 40% of them became refugees, left the best land in the Punjab in the Western Districts, and also their holiest shrines. In enumerating the losses of the Sikhs, Mr. Ian Stephens, Editor of The Statesman says in the editorial of January 3-4, 1948:

“Probably about 40% of this small but doughty people are in one manner or the other describable as refugees. The transference, in the main, has been from irrigated regions splendidly fertile to lands less productive. Prosperous colonies developed by an industrious and capable peasantry have been abandoned, as has much other property in rural and urban areas; some revered shrines are left on the far side of the boundary.”

After reading all that has been related in the present chapter, only one conclusion is possible, - that Hindus and Sikhs and even Christians have been hounded out of West Punjab and the N.-W. F. Province according to a set scheme, in order firstly to make Pakistan a purely Muslim State, and secondly to get the property of non-Muslims for Muslims. This process only a little later extended to Sind, and to East Bengal.

In East Bengal under pressure from India, it has been only recently arrested, to be revived who knows when?

Footnotes:

 
 ^ contents ^ 

Pakistan propaganda has sought to make the world believe that the happenings of 1947 in the Punjab were the result of what it calls ‘Some specific Plan’ on the part of Sikhs. -What this ‘Plan’ exactly was, what were the specific objectives which it set out to achieve is not made exactly clear, but nevertheless it is asserted that a Sikh ‘Plan’ existed to destroy Muslim life. Barefaced lying has been known to go quite far in the affairs of the world but such a high degree of it as has manifested itself in Pakistan propaganda against Sikhs in particular and against India in general, is a rare treat and is hard to beat. It must be a very stupid world which Pakistan expected would swallow the stuff put forth by its propagandists.

The foregoing chapters have revealed the Muslim political objective of the last decade and a half-Pakistan, and the methods suggested and adopted for its achievement, with their final culmination in the Direct Action Programme of the Muslim League, and the mass-murders of Hindus (and Sikhs) witnessed in Noakhali, the North-Western Frontier Province, the Punjab and Kashmir in pursuance of this programme.

Political activity in India since the time that, Mahatma Gandhi gave the lead to the country, has followed ‘legitimate and non-violent methods’. At times these methods involved lawbreaking, but never physical injury. The country from 1921 onward had grown used to the method of Satyagraha in its various forms - Non-co-operation, Civil disobedience and Mass Action such as was contemplated for the 1942 movement, which never really could be put into effect. But action of this kind was not the Muslim League way. The Muslim League depended for its political success on the assassin’s knife, the murderer’s bullet and the drafting into the field of thousands of fire-raisers, murderers of helpless women and children, brigands and desperadoes of all kinds. This ‘army’ was led by a group of intelligent and coolly planning leaders on top, who deliberately instilled religious hate for others into the minds of their co-religionists, whipped up such hate into a violent frenzy, and then let loose these hate-inspired mobs on such helpless Hindus and Sikhs, as were in a small minority in particular areas, and so went under easily. This way the Muslim League wanted to render it impossible for one unified Government to be established in India, and to create a situation in which the political division of the country became inevitable.

Let us here refresh the memory of the reader, sum up such evidence of a well prepared and slowly matured plan of religious war against Hindus and Sikhs as has been recorded in the foregoing sections of this book in-more or less detail. This evidence is summed up as under: -

(a) The Muslim League rejected the Cabinet Mission Scheme, which offered to the Muslims a wide measure of autonomy in such areas in which they were in a majority. As a matter of fact, according to this Scheme, Hindu-Sikh Punjab, Hindu Bengal, and all Assam would form part of the Muslim Zones. The Muslim League however, would be appeased with nothing short of a totally separate State.

(b) To achieve this separate State, the League formulated its Direct Action Programme; in support of which programme wild, threatening and violent speeches were made clearly suggesting violence and destructiveness. Murder hysteria was created in the Muslim mind. As a result of this attitude attacks on Sikhs occurred at Abbottabad in July, 1946 and on Hindus at Calcutta on and after August 16, 1946.

(c) Then followed Noakhali and the rest. All such mass slaughter and destruction occurred in areas in which Muslims were in an overwhelming majority, with police and official aid.

In destruction, arson and forcible conversions etc. right from 1946 up till 1948 the same pattern was followed everywhere.

(d) Muslim League leaders expressed no feeling of horror or even regreat at what was being done to non-Muslims by their political adherents.

(e) Accumulation of arms, dumps of petrol, skilled methods of arson, perfect integration between mobs, police and officials, train hold-ups, accumulation of brickbats in towns, marking of Muslim shops and houses before arson etc. everywhere suggest plan and preparation.

(f) The recruitment, training equipment and organisation on a military pattern of Muslim League National Guards points again to the existence of a Plan in the hands of the Muslim League which was to be implemented through the agency of the Goondas.

(g) Last but not least is the fact that the Muslims in Bengal, North-Western Frontier Province and the Punjab committed aggression which went unpunished by non-Muslims for long. As a matter of fact, it was only in the Punjab and that too, after August 15, 1947 that Sikhs and Hindus did anything to avenge the murder of hundreds of thousands of their co-religionists, the burning of thousands of houses and the abduction of women and children. Up till August 15, Muslim aggression went unchecked, not because Hindus and Sikhs did not smart under the blows of the Muslims but because in the face of the Muslim organisation and police power they were helpless. All along Muslims thought they could go on being aggressive forever, and that there would be no reprisals. The Sikh reaction of the post-August 15 period really disillusioned and surprised the Muslims, who had never carefully studied the Sikh character nor pondered the potentialities of this people. The Sikh (and Hindu) revenge was violent, swift and terribly destructive. Muslims of East Punjab had to pay for the misdeeds of their co-religionists in West Punjab and other parts of India. This was unfortunate and not very logical either, but in human affairs it is not always logic which governs conduct, and the mass mind, once it is roused to the pitch of fury, will grow terribly revengeful, unreasoning and hysterical. That is what happened to Sikhs and Hindus in East Punjab after the terrible sufferings undergone by Sikhs and Hindus at the hands of Muslims in West Punjab and in the North-Western Frontier Province. As lakhs of Sikhs moved east from Rawalpindi Division and the Frontier Province, and uprooted men and women with ghastly stories to tell came to seek shelter from the terror of Lahore and Amritsar which were burning, the Sikh mind was deeply exercised over these happenings. Men, women and children would be seen going into towns and villages, huddled fifty in a room for shelter in Gurdwaras, Sarais, Dharamsalas - seeking lodgings in places not fit to be treated as pigsties, setting up stalls and booths on the roadside for a living - this sight was bound to make the Sikhs extremely angry. Sikhs would be less than human, they would be a nation of cowards and chicken-hearted manikins if they had not taken the sufferings of Sikhs in other parts of India and of the Punjab much to heart.

It must be reiterated as an important fact that while by April, 1947 there were about a million Sikh and Hindu refugees from Muslim terror, who took Shelter in Wah, Kala and other refugee camps, in Amritsar, in the Sikh States, in Ludhiana, Jullundur and Ferozepore Districts, in Hardwar, Delhi, Ambala, Karnal and even as far south as Gurgaon and the States of Alwar, Bharatpur, Dholpur and Bikaner - there were very few Muslims till then and months later who could be described as refugees. The reason was that Sikhs and Hindus had been till then the only sufferers. They were nowhere in a position to put up a fight against Muslim aggression. In Amritsar alone some Muslims were rendered homeless in certain areas of the town, where Sikhs and Hindus had been able to burn Muslim quarters after having had their own burnt. Some Muslim workers were thrown out of work because non-Muslim factory owners in these times could not trust their life and property to Muslims, any one or any group of whom would most likely turn an assassin and fire-raiser against Hindus and Sikhs. These Muslims of Amritsar, a few thousands in number, were the only members of their community in the Punjab who at this time could be described as being riot sufferers as against a million Hindus and Sikhs. This situation continued up till August 15, and several days later. Let the entire Sikh-Muslim problem be pondered with this important factor in the situation kept very carefully in mind.

But all through the months up till August, 1947 Sikhs in every part of the present East Punjab and in the Sikh States kept peaceful. The Government communiques on the riot situation of the Punjab while reporting as many as 69 fires daily in Lahore, the burning of whole localities with many thousands rendered homeless, the brutalities committed by Muslim Goondas and Assassins, have but one report to make about East Punjab: “East Punjab is reported quiet.” Here and there minor disturbances occurred, but they were quite often of the seeking of Muslims. In Ludhiana, Jullundur and Hoshiarpur Muslims stabbed Sikhs and Hindus and there was some counter-stabbing. But on the whole there was no retaliation in East Punjab. Muslims in Patiala, Jind, Nabha and Faridkot States, all of which with the exception of Jind are Sikh majority areas, (Jind being Hindu. Sikh majority) there was not a single incident of attack on any Muslim. Muslims felt in these States perfectly secure, though in parts of Patiala Muslims did try to make mischief against the Sikh refugees from Rawalpindi and the Frontier. But even at this there was no attack on Muslims anywhere.

In Ferozepur, Ludhiana and Jullundur districts in which Sikhs were the most powerful factor in the rural population - there was no incident of attack on any Muslim anywhere. Nor in rural Lahore, where the Sikhs were better organised and more powerful than Muslims. The only District in the rural areas of which (and that after the middle of July) some fighting did occur was Amritsar. This was the direct and inevitable consequence of the daily burning and stabbing of Hindus and Sikhs in Amritsar town, and in Lahore. Sikh villagers coming to Amritsar were quite often waylaid by Muslims outside the town and murdered. Sikh murders ran into hundreds. These murders inflamed the Sikh countryside, and attacks on Muslims began to occur-in July. In Amritsar, Muslims quite often attacked Sikhs in rural areas also first. Dhapai, Mula Chak, Bhagtanwala, Jhabal, Verka, Sultanwind, Khasa, etc. were some of the places in which attacks on Sikhs occurred, That Sikhs should have retaliated by attacking Muslims, who were in the rural areas not so strongly situated as Sikhs, was only natural. When the month of August began, Amritsar was the only district in the Punjab where fighting was going on. Not that Muslims were peaceful. Only for some strategic reason, as August approached, they appeared to have decided upon a kind of lull - as if in preparation of some very big offensive. And that big offensive came everywhere after August 10. It began in Lahore, and by the 12th and 13th was in operation in Gujranwala, Sialkot, Gujrat, Montgomery and other near districts. Mianwali, Sheikhupura, Lyallpur, Muzaffargarh etc. caught up a little later.

In Amritsar attacks on Muslims began after the 11th August, a day after the terrible massacre of thousands of Hindus and Sikhs occurred in Lahore. Refugees came from Lahore - the new wave had already reached East Punjab via Ferozepur by the 13th August. But their coming did not cause Sikhs anywhere to flare-up and to attack Muslims. Everyone somehow expected that Pakistan would have a good responsible Government, and that as soon as it was established some sort of order would be restored, more successfully than the British Government had been able to do. This hope, unfortunately, was soon belied.

The situation on the 15th August was that all East Punjab was quiet, the only part of East Punjab where attacks on Muslims had occurred was Amritsar, but Amritsar was a case apart. This was a city which had spent five and a half months in a state of siege and here Hindus and Sikhs had suffered terribly from Muslim aggression. So, punishment of Amritsar Muslims as soon as the stranglehold of the Muslim Police and officialdom was removed was only natural. A cornered, persecuted non-Muslim population fell upon their persecutors and made them flee from Amritsar in the brief space of a day and a half. But there were absolutely no repercussions of Amritsar in any part of East Punjab at this time.

Terrible news continued to pour in from Lahore after the 11th August. It was a not inaccurate picture of mass murder which flashed to the East Punjab, through the refugees and other means. East Punjab did not celebrate Independence Day on August 15 with anything like a heart. Muslim began, however, to make mischief in East Punjab too. There appears to have been some kind of a Muslim scheme to create trouble in the nascent State of India, especially on its Pakistan border. From Jullundur, Ludhiana, Patiala, Ambala, Delhi, Alwar and other places large Muslim dumps of arms were unearthed. Near Ludhiana, on the 17th August murders of Sikhs in trains occurred. That led to murders of Muslims. Came on this scene stories of fresh atrocities in Lahore, Sialkot, Gujranwala, etc. and attacks on Muslims by infuriated Sikhs and Hindus. Thus it was that suddenly on the 21st August train services stopped. With every report of massacre in West Punjab corresponding things occurred in East Punjab. It became a race for mass murder of the opposite community. Exactly the methods which the Muslims had perfected for the genocide of Hindus and Sikhs, were employed for the destruction of Muslims in East Punjab. It was arson for arson, murder for murder, abduction for abduction, forcible conversion for forcible conversion-ad nauseam.

All through the period since the terrible March riots of Rawalpindi, and the beating which the Sikhs were daily taking in Amritsar, they had been jeered at by Muslims and others as cowards. It got abroad that the Sikhs had lost their old sting; that they had lost the martial spirit which they had inherited from their fathers. This thesis was so unquestioningly accepted that certain philosophical people among Hindus and even among Sikhs began to find historical causes for this supposed deterioration of the Sikh militant character. Some attributed it to the growing urbanisation of the Sikhs, others to the decline in the standard of Sikh diet, others to the growth among them of indifference towards religion, and so on and so forth. This taunt rankled in the Sikh heart. Sikhs felt helpless everywhere. In Rawalpindi they were hopelessly out-numbered. They wanted to be qui& with Muslims in Amritsar. But the overwhelming Muslim majority in the police, the coordination between the Muslim League and the officialdom of the Punjab - and what is more - the stationing in East Punjab of the major portion of the Boundary Force - kept Sikhs totally helpless spectators of the ruin of Amritsar. Rawalpindi as the months passed, began to fade a little into history, to become more a problem for rehabilitation than for revenge. And, it was generally thought that as order would be established with the birth of Pakistan, the West Punjab evacuees would be able to return home. This hope somehow continued to grow. Amritsar remained the one active theatre of war. Lahore was similar.

In summing up the causes of the occurrence of post-August riots in East Punjab, The Hindustan Times in its editorial dated October 23, 1948 says:-

“But the systematic manner in which Pakistan leaders are attempting to paint the people of this country as demons out to destroy innocent Muslims, while hiding, it not defending, the horrible outrages perpetrated by members of their own community from Calcutta to Sheikhupura is nothing but an attempt to defame this country and throw dust in the eyes of the outside world regarding the crimes committed by their co-religionists. They also know, as does everyone in this country, that the Punjab disaster was but the culminating act of the tragedy which began with the unprincipled campaign of communal hated and violence which they and their party leaders had been preaching for years as the only means of securing the ambition of their heart, namely, the separation of a part of this country where they could play the role of rulers, even though at the cost of unexampled suffering and misery to their own co-religionists both in Pakistan and India.”

In an earlier editorial entitled “Who Was Responsible?” The Hindustan Times (July 7, 1948) has clearly been able to prove the Pakistan conspiracy and its aggression which brought on the Punjab Tragedy. Says The Hindustan Times: Wednesday, July 7, 1948.

“Who was Responsible?”

“We do not know why Mr. Ghulam Mohammad¹ thought it his duty to anticipate the verdict of history regarding the responsibility of Lord Mountbatten for the tragedy of the Punjab. He is reported to have stated at a Press Conference in London that when the history of the events of this dark chapter comes to be written ‘a part of the blame-would rest on Lord Mountbatten.’ He has made two specific charges. The last British Viceroy was aware of a deep laid conspiracy by the Sikhs and Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh “to throttle Pakistan by eliminating Muslim” and refused to take action. The other charge is that Lord Mountbatten forced partition too quickly. The British Commonwealth Relations Office has repudiated both charges. It has pointed out that it was the then Governor of Punjab who had proved himself to be an avowed partisan of Muslim League, and had looked on impotently while sanguinary riots organized by the Muslim League and the Muslim National Guards took place in North Punjab in March and April 1947. It may be convenient for Mr. Ghulam Mohammed to forget that what happened in August 1947, was a mere continuation of the bloody chain of reaction which was set in motion by the Muslim League at Calcutta in August 1946. In March and April 1947, Sikhs had been brutally massacred and looted and they were abused as cowards because they had not reacted at once with violence. As a matter of fact Lord Mountbatten yielded to his pro-Muslim advisers and stationed the major portion of the Punjab Boundary Force in East Punjab with the result that there was no force to check or control the terrible massacres of Hindus and Sikhs that occurred in Sheikhupura and other places. We should certainly like an impartial investigation into the events of those days and we have no doubt it will be found that while, on the Indian side, it was the spontaneous outburst of a people indignant at what they considered the weakness and the appeasement policy of their leadership, on the Muslim side, the League, the bureaucracy, the police and the army worked like Hitler’s team with the tacit if not open approval of those in charge of the Pakistan Government.”

By the time the Sikh (and Hindu) attack on the Muslims came - the rankling shame in the Sikh mind at their own helplessness, the pouring into the East Punjab of train loads of corpses from West Punjab, of daily stories of massacres and of millions of helpless men, women and chi