Source 2c

Cover note and extract from a newspaper article from The Times, 25th August, 1947. Catalogue ref: DO 142/416

Transcript

Sir P.Patrick
Sir A. Carter

I attach the article about the Punjab in to-day’s “Times” in case you have not seen it. It is the fullest report which we have yet had from any source of what is happening.
It suggests that: –

Sikh and Hindu troops are no longer ready to fire on their co-religionists
the death role is likely to be much higher than the few thousands estimated by General Rees. If one gang of Sikhs murders “at least 500 people” in 5 villages in one day and 50 villages are seen in flames at one time, the death role must be very high indeed, spread only the last fortnight during which the situation has been getting increasingly out of hand
there are evidently not nearly enough troops in the Boundary Force
civil control has quite broken down.

25th August, 1947

 

“THE TIMES” OF 25TH AUGUST 1947
MASSACRES IN PUNJAB
MUSLIMS BUTCHERED BY ARMED MOBS OF SIKHS
BREAKDOWN OF CIVIL ADMINISTRATION
From Our Special Correspondent in Punjab

 

The Jathas at Work
“A thousand times more horrible than anything we saw during the war”, is the universal comment of experienced officers, British and Indian, on the present slaughter in east Punjab. The Sikhs are on the war-path. They are clearing eastern Punjab of Muslims, butchering hundreds daily, forcing thousands to flee westward, burning Muslim villages and homesteads, even in their frenzy burning their own too. This violence has been organized from the highest levels of Sikh leadership, and it is being done systematically, sector by sector. Some large towns like Amritsar and Jullundur, are now quieter, because there are no Muslims left. In a two hours’ air reconnaissance of the Jullundur district at the week-end I must have seen 50 villages aflame.

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