12-31-2003, 04:06 AM
MUSLIM LEAGUE ATTACKS ON HINDUS/SIKHS #26
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 Ëcorner-stoneâ¢. 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 harmâ¢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 oâ¢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 oâ¢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 Dinâ¢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 oâ¢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 oneâ¢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
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 Queenâ¢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 Queenâ¢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 ââ¬Ëshikarââ¬â¢ 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 Ëtook 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.
<b>The moral of all this is very clear</b>:
(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.
© 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.
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 Ëcorner-stoneâ¢. 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 harmâ¢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 oâ¢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 oâ¢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 Dinâ¢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 oâ¢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 oneâ¢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
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 Queenâ¢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 Queenâ¢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 ââ¬Ëshikarââ¬â¢ 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 Ëtook 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.
<b>The moral of all this is very clear</b>:
(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.
© 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.