Source 4

A report on refugee movements after partition. Catalogue ref: DO 142/416

Transcript

75-Mile Non-Moslem Convey Quits Pakistan for India File on Punjab disturbances file

New Delhi, October 6

One of the greatest mass migrations in history was today nearing completion as a 75-mile convoy of uprooted non-Moslem population continued to pour over the Pakistan border into India from the most fertile areas of the West Punjab.

The whole convoy was expected to have crossed into the East Punjab within the enxt two or three days. Then the gigantic task of (illegible) them will begin.

So vast is this moving mass of humanity- sustained by food dropped by air and by doctors flown to its aid – that it took eight days to pass a stationary point.

The convoy included shopkeepers, artisans, doctors, lawyers and once-rich landlords. The old and sick died on the way, but the convoy moved on, blood from torn feet of the weary immigrants staining the dusty road.

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