Uneasy Calm Broods Over Punjab

Chronicle (Levin), 31 March 1947, Page 5

Uneasy Calm Broods Over Punjab

P?-ess Assn.

By Telegraph

-Copyright

Received Sunday, 8.15 p.m. * LONDON, March 29. The u'heasy cairn brooding over the Punjab shows little sign of developing into a real peace, says .he Tinies Lahore correspondtxH. In some places there is the peace of death with all members of one commu'nity or the other either slaughtered or fled and everywhere eise therb is tension capable at any moment of dissolving into panic or worse. A "genuine restoration of confidence is absent everywhere save in Lahore and the immediate neighbourhood. Amritsar's social and econoftiic. life is cbmpietely disrupted, whole areas of the city being gutted. Thousands have fled to villages. IncidentS occur nightly and only the presfehce of' the troops and police prevents a recurrt'nce of large scale disorders. The biggest problem of the Punjab" Government at the moment is he Rawlapindi rural areas where the official death roll is 488, though ihis gives little indication of the widespread terror which stalked the countryside recently and still requires for its repression the presence of large bodies of troops. , Stabbing assaults and arson eontinue i'n Calcutta. British troops assisted the civil authorities to restore order. The police fired 28 rounds and made 43 arrests. Tension in. sbme sections is easing. Nine districts are under a 14-i- hour curfew. •